Monday, March 03, 2008
Attack of the Logos / MachineMolle
We spent a large portion of our weekend not only picking our jaws off the ground, but also mopping up the huge puddles of envy-drool that accumulated while watching this video:
[Justice - DVNO]
It's rare that I really get into the 3D CG stuff, but the group that did this video (Machine Molle, FR) has a lot of really original and beautiful work from the last few years (check out their 2002 Royksopp video for "Remind Me"). Machine Molle.
[Justice - DVNO]
It's rare that I really get into the 3D CG stuff, but the group that did this video (Machine Molle, FR) has a lot of really original and beautiful work from the last few years (check out their 2002 Royksopp video for "Remind Me"). Machine Molle.
Labels: 3d, computer generated, design studio, ed banger, france, graphic design, justice, Logo, machine molle, music video
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posted by Ben Domanico @ 10:06 AM 0 comments links to this post
posted by Ben Domanico @ 10:06 AM 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Baltimore Advertising Landmark M.I.A.
If you are from Baltimore and travel on the JFX(83), you've definitely noticed this already. The Pepsi Sign is missing. I've seen this sign for as long as I can consciously remember. I even remember pulling over to the side of the highway as a child with my father to watch floods overflowing the Jones Falls basin and seeing the Pepsi trucks nearly underwater.Weathered, worn, and dated, I watched the damaged sign begin to be dismantled a few weeks ago. I was certain it would either remain gone, or be replaced by an updated swooshed 3d buttonized wetfloor version of the Pepsi identity.
I found myself relieved when I found out the sign is not being updated, but restored to its original 1969 version. It's not often, in this age of meaningless updates , mashups and nip/tucks of classic marks, when people actually do things right.Full story here.
Labels: advertising, Logo, pepsi sign
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Sunday, April 15, 2007
msnbc vs MSNBC
I am behind on the times, but I wanted to make some comments about MSNBC's re-branding to msnbc, and talk a little bit about what I think about this new logo.
I have been critical, recently, of a few logos (Dairy Queen, The Bank of New York and Phoenix)and I have liked a few (such as Citi and Credit Suiss).
First, the peacock is both lovely and familiar, modern-retro, gentle, and with delicate lines. It has been in my face for so many years I almost can't see it anymore. But next to the clunky barbarous type beside it, it immediately becomes apparent that the ONLY thing that is interesting here is chermayeff & geismar's peacock, the type has gotta go.
Lets look at what is so bad about this type. The S and N are my biggest problems. Stretching them horizontally is simply wrong on so many levels - and it is completely inexplicable until you look below: 
Has anyone seens such a cluttered rough mast for a major brand? Basically, in order to produce a vertical box treatment for the logo, the designer did evil with type. So that the S and the N would fit vertically beneath the M, they have been stretched to the M's width. This throws off the balance so that when looking at it, lets say on tv, it is always hard to read. 
2/ the new logo is inviting, and to the extent that it is web 2.0 then I am pleased, because msnbc is make a serious stab at more audience participation. So it fits.
3/ The new logo is integrated with a whole new campaign, and this surrounds an exultant use of color:
And that is really nice.
4/ it is genuinely hard to revitalize and change something while retaining the best elements of the predecessor. This new mark does that and I think it is graceful and subtle as well. I feel like it more NBC and maybe more Microsoft than the original, and so this upgrade has left the parentage and legacy improved and intact.
Take a look at what it means to be full spectrum.
Brand New, as always, has some good comments.
I have been critical, recently, of a few logos (Dairy Queen, The Bank of New York and Phoenix)and I have liked a few (such as Citi and Credit Suiss).
So here is a liker.
I am enamored of the new msnbc logo primarily because the old one was so God-forsaken-awful. Unlike some logos where it is hard to put your finger on what exactly is so troubling about it, the old MSNBC one is right there in your face. Lets dissect it and then move on to the new one.
I am enamored of the new msnbc logo primarily because the old one was so God-forsaken-awful. Unlike some logos where it is hard to put your finger on what exactly is so troubling about it, the old MSNBC one is right there in your face. Lets dissect it and then move on to the new one.
First, the peacock is both lovely and familiar, modern-retro, gentle, and with delicate lines. It has been in my face for so many years I almost can't see it anymore. But next to the clunky barbarous type beside it, it immediately becomes apparent that the ONLY thing that is interesting here is chermayeff & geismar's peacock, the type has gotta go.
Lets look at what is so bad about this type. The S and N are my biggest problems. Stretching them horizontally is simply wrong on so many levels - and it is completely inexplicable until you look below:
Has anyone seens such a cluttered rough mast for a major brand? Basically, in order to produce a vertical box treatment for the logo, the designer did evil with type. So that the S and the N would fit vertically beneath the M, they have been stretched to the M's width. This throws off the balance so that when looking at it, lets say on tv, it is always hard to read.
At the bottom read the word decision, and then try to read the letters in the logo. Feel the difficulty? You have to actually work your way through the logo.
Similarly, the boxed vertical version is even more troubling, it jumbles up before your eyes and almost grows abstract. See how easy it is to read the numbers, the 8 for instance, as opposed to the N?
So for all these good reasons, MSNBC has decided to become msnbc.
Similarly, the boxed vertical version is even more troubling, it jumbles up before your eyes and almost grows abstract. See how easy it is to read the numbers, the 8 for instance, as opposed to the N?
So for all these good reasons, MSNBC has decided to become msnbc.
msnbc has spoken about why they feel the brand needs an upgrade:
""Msnbc.com inspires consumers to explore the ever-unfolding human story," said Catherine Captain, vice president of marketing, msnbc.com. "The Fuller Spectrum of News campaign speaks to msnbc.com's rich consumer experience, an online environment no other news site offers. It's designed to bring to life compelling, original and even quirky stories, and showcase the diversity of media, sources and platforms consumers discover on the site."
A Fuller Spectrum of News, created with New York-based strategic communications firm SS+K, takes consumers on a lively and colorful journey through msnbc.com. The cross-platform campaign is comprised of broadcast, print and online executions, including banner ads, an online game and an interactive screensaver, in addition to the first branded in-cinema motion sensor game.
""Msnbc.com inspires consumers to explore the ever-unfolding human story," said Catherine Captain, vice president of marketing, msnbc.com. "The Fuller Spectrum of News campaign speaks to msnbc.com's rich consumer experience, an online environment no other news site offers. It's designed to bring to life compelling, original and even quirky stories, and showcase the diversity of media, sources and platforms consumers discover on the site."
A Fuller Spectrum of News, created with New York-based strategic communications firm SS+K, takes consumers on a lively and colorful journey through msnbc.com. The cross-platform campaign is comprised of broadcast, print and online executions, including banner ads, an online game and an interactive screensaver, in addition to the first branded in-cinema motion sensor game.
"The thing people really love about msnbc.com is the wide range of stories, from Iraq to Angelina Jolie," said Marty Cooke, chief creative officer, SS+K. "Color is a great metaphor and gave us a dynamic way to illustrate the rich variety on the site beyond using the obvious news photos.""
So they aren't fooling around, which is cool, and I think their claim that a "full spectrum" is an equivalent metaphor to "360" or "wide-range" is dead on.
SS+K has done some great work with Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG brand, and have also somehow managed to make unicef appealing.
The new logo is set in Gotham, a font used for high-falutin museums and such, and so you might be hoping for a newsier font, something that evokes timeliness or beat reporters clamouring for a scoop; but I am very pleased with how inviting it appears and compared to the old logo I am willing to let nearly anything slide.
The biggest criticism I have seen thus far is that it is too web 2.0. That it is just screaming to have a "beta" stuck on it. While I will grant that point, the logo does so many other things right:
1/ the new logo makes the peacock look better. Or at least doesn't make it look worse.
SS+K has done some great work with Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG brand, and have also somehow managed to make unicef appealing.
The new logo is set in Gotham, a font used for high-falutin museums and such, and so you might be hoping for a newsier font, something that evokes timeliness or beat reporters clamouring for a scoop; but I am very pleased with how inviting it appears and compared to the old logo I am willing to let nearly anything slide.
The biggest criticism I have seen thus far is that it is too web 2.0. That it is just screaming to have a "beta" stuck on it. While I will grant that point, the logo does so many other things right:
1/ the new logo makes the peacock look better. Or at least doesn't make it look worse.
2/ the new logo is inviting, and to the extent that it is web 2.0 then I am pleased, because msnbc is make a serious stab at more audience participation. So it fits.
3/ The new logo is integrated with a whole new campaign, and this surrounds an exultant use of color:
And that is really nice.
4/ it is genuinely hard to revitalize and change something while retaining the best elements of the predecessor. This new mark does that and I think it is graceful and subtle as well. I feel like it more NBC and maybe more Microsoft than the original, and so this upgrade has left the parentage and legacy improved and intact.
Take a look at what it means to be full spectrum.
Brand New, as always, has some good comments.
Labels: Branding, Logo, msnbc, Old Media Deathwatch
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posted by Sean Cohen @ 4:32 PM 1 comments links to this post
posted by Sean Cohen @ 4:32 PM 1 comments links to this post
Friday, March 30, 2007
Doritos Queen - a dairy queen disaster
The old Dairy queen logo had some compelling features. The typography is startlingly modern, the shape is retro-fifties and the whole package sings "make an awesome well-lit retail sign out of me."
True, the food is now and has always been unadulterated sugar-spiked trash, but that is why we love it, right? The Dairy Queen mystique for me has always had to do with some sort of vague 50's ice-cream parlor RootBeer-float feeling that you get - it is a summer destination in the way that 7-11 never could be, and fun for kids in a way that Royal Farms fails at utterly.
Well our good friends at Dairy Queen weren't satisfied with their terrific logo and so have gone into competition with - cool ranch doritos. And all other snack food.
The new font is nothing special, and I see a little too much Quiznos in the Q and nothing distinctive about the D at all. The only partially acceptable move was to put the trademark "R" in the red shape instead of it dangling out, as it was before.
Usage is problematic because the light swoosh and the dark swoosh make it so that no one color (dark or light) can make the logo pop against the background.
The way the problem was solved below, with a white halo around the whole logo - is just confused and lame.
So whats my takeaway?
"Don't Fix It If It Ain't Broke."
I think that if a change HAD to take place, it could be a change in usage or treatment, perhaps they could even go so far as to animated it and trend towards animated signs, at points of purchase, etc. (Wachovia has done this very elegantly with their logo at ATMs and I admit, it has me thinking of their logo in animated form even with I see it still.)
The OLD OLD logo, just for reference:
True, the food is now and has always been unadulterated sugar-spiked trash, but that is why we love it, right? The Dairy Queen mystique for me has always had to do with some sort of vague 50's ice-cream parlor RootBeer-float feeling that you get - it is a summer destination in the way that 7-11 never could be, and fun for kids in a way that Royal Farms fails at utterly.
Well our good friends at Dairy Queen weren't satisfied with their terrific logo and so have gone into competition with - cool ranch doritos. And all other snack food.
The new font is nothing special, and I see a little too much Quiznos in the Q and nothing distinctive about the D at all. The only partially acceptable move was to put the trademark "R" in the red shape instead of it dangling out, as it was before.
Usage is problematic because the light swoosh and the dark swoosh make it so that no one color (dark or light) can make the logo pop against the background.
The way the problem was solved below, with a white halo around the whole logo - is just confused and lame.
So whats my takeaway?
"Don't Fix It If It Ain't Broke."
I think that if a change HAD to take place, it could be a change in usage or treatment, perhaps they could even go so far as to animated it and trend towards animated signs, at points of purchase, etc. (Wachovia has done this very elegantly with their logo at ATMs and I admit, it has me thinking of their logo in animated form even with I see it still.)
The OLD OLD logo, just for reference:
Labels: Branding, Dairy Queen, Food Design, Logo
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posted by Sean Cohen @ 3:42 PM 1 comments links to this post
posted by Sean Cohen @ 3:42 PM 1 comments links to this post
Friday, February 16, 2007
Citi's Identity
The original sketch of the Citi logo, appropriately on a napkin, by Paula Scher (of Pentagram) in 1998.
Citi has announced that it will finally unite under the brand suggested by Pentagram nine years ago. For some this may not be news, but in the slow moving world of Finance not everything is so simple. It has taken a while to realize that a unified brand may make more sense, and even now it is contested, but as the CEO said, "It is how most of our clients think about us already."
The blandness of this announcement is actually a tribute to the deftness with which it was carried off. Instead of an overnight overhaul or a trumpet blasting announcement party, the Citigroup slowly and surely made moves towards the use of the new name and logo until, inevitably, it was the name and logo.
The tension at Citi over the logo was primarily internal. Investment bankers didn't want to be confused with those people who rolled coins at the local branch, and Smith Barney's hotshots felt like they needed to distance themselves from Travelers Insurance. But this internal strife had no bearing on how the firm was seen from the outside. The four letter catchy "Citi" was all that was needed to communicate "money" and "trust" to most - even larger - customers.
This will hardly be the last brand overhaul for Citi. The company is in a somewhat strained condition following allegations of Todd Thompson's ties to CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and after its private bank got kicked out of Japan. There has been a management shakeup as a result, with Sallie Krawcheck effectively accepting a demotion from CFO to the head of the Wealth Management Division.
In an effort to get the kids to play nice, Charles Prince (the CEO) has been trumpeting one culture and one name for over two years. As the soap opera I have recounted above shows, a new brand may not really solve anything. The core issues with Citi all have to do with the fact that its cost base is expanding quicker than its revenue growth. Details for cost cutting will no doubt be announced soon.
The original migration strategy (below) as design in 1998 was considerably slower, and planned to have everything transferred by 2012.
As pentagram's site says, "Working with consultant Michael Wolff, Pentagram’s recommendation was to unify the merged entity under a single, four letter name—Citi—and to adopt a logo that would transform the Travelers’ red umbrella into an arc over the letter “t.” (Not only is that letter Travelers’ initial, but it also is one of the few letters that looks like an umbrella handle!)"
The tension at Citi over the logo was primarily internal. Investment bankers didn't want to be confused with those people who rolled coins at the local branch, and Smith Barney's hotshots felt like they needed to distance themselves from Travelers Insurance. But this internal strife had no bearing on how the firm was seen from the outside. The four letter catchy "Citi" was all that was needed to communicate "money" and "trust" to most - even larger - customers.
This will hardly be the last brand overhaul for Citi. The company is in a somewhat strained condition following allegations of Todd Thompson's ties to CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and after its private bank got kicked out of Japan. There has been a management shakeup as a result, with Sallie Krawcheck effectively accepting a demotion from CFO to the head of the Wealth Management Division.
In an effort to get the kids to play nice, Charles Prince (the CEO) has been trumpeting one culture and one name for over two years. As the soap opera I have recounted above shows, a new brand may not really solve anything. The core issues with Citi all have to do with the fact that its cost base is expanding quicker than its revenue growth. Details for cost cutting will no doubt be announced soon.
The original migration strategy (below) as design in 1998 was considerably slower, and planned to have everything transferred by 2012.
As pentagram's site says, "Working with consultant Michael Wolff, Pentagram’s recommendation was to unify the merged entity under a single, four letter name—Citi—and to adopt a logo that would transform the Travelers’ red umbrella into an arc over the letter “t.” (Not only is that letter Travelers’ initial, but it also is one of the few letters that looks like an umbrella handle!)"
The London and New York offices of pentagram went to great lengths to show Citigroup that this logo conversion would work, including mockups and demonstrations of how it would operate.
Associated with this plan is the sale of the Travelers Umbrella back to St. Paul Travelers, who will probably rename themselves Travelers.
Read More:
Pentagram's announcement
Folding Citi's umbrella - Forbes
Labels: Branding, Design, Fine Financial Branding, Logo
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posted by Sean Cohen @ 7:54 AM 0 comments links to this post
posted by Sean Cohen @ 7:54 AM 0 comments links to this post
