Logo Refresh
The Times has an interesting little slide show of corporations doing a "logo refresh." That's graphic design speak for rehabilitating a corporate logo. Lots of market research is done to find the most pernicious way to trick people, er--I mean, communicate the essence of the company through bold, brilliant design.
A few years ago Wal-Mart's logo may have projected strength and stability. But in a recession where job losses are in the millions and corporations are (rightly) vilified, Wal-Mart's logo starts to resemble a Soviet force coming to town to hollow out small family-owned candy shops run on a modest profit for five generations. Time for a refresh.
Corporations need to soften their facade in this new era. Green and light blue are dominating as well as little explosions of color that clearly say "our corporate mission is fun, fun, fun."
How can anyone object to this family-friendly logo propagating across the land? Its lower case letters emit calm and modesty. This could be the logo for a daycare center or brand of low-fat yogurt. It puts a smile on my face.
Sometimes new logos are rolled out and fans reject it. So loyal are consumers to a brand, so successful the original logo in filling their empty hearts, that a company may have to backtrack and scrap the hip new design. How would you like to wake up and find your spouse had a completely new fashion sense? Would you still love them? Maybe if they were the same on the inside. Only time will tell if the lower-case Walmart can once again captivate shoppers.
A few years ago Wal-Mart's logo may have projected strength and stability. But in a recession where job losses are in the millions and corporations are (rightly) vilified, Wal-Mart's logo starts to resemble a Soviet force coming to town to hollow out small family-owned candy shops run on a modest profit for five generations. Time for a refresh.
Sometimes new logos are rolled out and fans reject it. So loyal are consumers to a brand, so successful the original logo in filling their empty hearts, that a company may have to backtrack and scrap the hip new design. How would you like to wake up and find your spouse had a completely new fashion sense? Would you still love them? Maybe if they were the same on the inside. Only time will tell if the lower-case Walmart can once again captivate shoppers.
posted by Matt Bors at
12:00 AM
3 Comments:
Ah yes, I remember this new logo rolling out. Consumers may or may not notice this fresh, new and fun corporate behemoth, but the design community sure did. Most designers didn't seem to outright hate it, but it really didn't make any sense from their perspective. The W is nice, but what the hell does the weird sunburst thingy represent? Obviously nothing.
The sunburst thingy is a reference to the star, so while it's been displaced and no longer works in context as a divider for the portmanteau (Walton + Mart), it actually does make some design sense to keep it in there.
As for corporate rebranding: Target's remaking their store brand, calling it "up & up" now (and yes, lowercase, sans serif).
Wal-Mart is doing something similar. Its house brands recently standardized around a semi-minimalist low-key model that does two things: Provide a consistent look and feel for the house brand everywhere in the store; and suggest that the simplified graphics somehow equal lower prices. (A la the generic product craze of the 1980s.)
Additionally, all this sans serif lowercase simplification has a distinctly European feel to it, which suggests even the three-toothed rubes at Wal-Mart still want to feel like they have a sophisticated elan like but not like "them faggitz" overseas.
The NYT also pointed out the refrobbing of market dominating Australian grocer Woolworth's logo.
Woolies is in dire need of some sort of softening of their image since it's become known that when they put any given product on special, they force the producer to cut the wholesale price they charge to Woolies. Far be it from Woolies to actually lose any profit.
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