UPS said the change reflects the significant broadening of its capabilities that has occurred in recent years as the company has expanded across the globe and introduced a portfolio of new supply chain services.

The company will continue to use the color brown for its operations. The logo change includes elimination of the package with a string bow atop the shield.

UPS's trucks are still brown, but its new logo reflects the company's global expansion and portfolio of supply chain services.

"UPS is a vastly different company today than most people realize," said UPS chairman & CEO Mike Eskew. "Today we are bringing our look up to speed with our capabilities."

The visual changes will not be restricted to the logo alone. To further communicate the global reach and expanding capabilities of UPS, the phrase "Synchronizing the World of Commerce" will become part of the design of the company's aircraft and familiar brown package cars. New advertising also will tap into the "synchronizing commerce" theme.

And while brown will remain the primary color representing UPS, other new, complementary colors will become part of the design of aircraft, packages and other company assets.

According to Eskew, UPS had planned to unveil the new logo today at events around the world, but significantly scaled back on those plans due to the war against Iraq.

The most visible change to the UPS logo is the removal of the bow-tied parcel that appears atop the shield. Ironically, even though the small bow had become one of the most recognized features of the company's logo, UPS has not accepted packages with string for several decades because the string can get caught in high-speed sorting machinery.

The late Paul Rand (1914-96), one of the foremost American graphic designers of the 20th Century, who also created the logos of IBM, ABC, Westinghouse and Yale University, among others, designed the logo now being tinkered with in 1961.