Observations, plus other stuff.

So I've been slacking off and not commenting on things. Had a little heart surgery, so hey, that's my excuse.

So to make up for it I'm going to comment on a bunch of things. Here goes:

I really like the "HERSHEY" typography, but really? This must mean that Kisses bring in the most money. 

Much better than the box logo predecessor, but there is something that bothers me about the eagle. Could be line weight. 

Nice, clean and simple. Never really understood having one of your planes be your logo. Not wild about the metallic finish on the heart. Designers just can't leave well enough alone.

Is there really that much equity in the ugly red roof? The whole thing is messy and without reasoning. Move on already.

Very nice return to their roots. Well done. Bottle look great!

WOW! Really screwed the pooch on this one. I know there is equity in the stag, but how about some restraint. The only redeeming quality is the typography.

Just plain sad.

I get the idea to modernize, but the logotype now has such a generic feel that it doesn't really connect with the symbol.

I like the symbol even if it is a little busy. But man! That logotype SUCKS! lower case highlights it's weakness.

Well it looks like Arby's has righted their identity ship. A "new" logo was released very quietly and I think we are all better off.

The Oct. 2012 work was horrible for so many reasons that it is hard to believe it ever happened. These kind if missteps can kill a brand, but I think Arby's has done the right thing here. 

Couple of lessons here:  A) Don't replace actual brand equity with a new campaign ("Slicing Up Freshness") and B) Figure out what problem you're trying to solve before you go messing with the logo.

I have been a bit remiss in posting. Got busy...blah blah blah. You know how it goes.

Well, to make up for it I am going to group comment on a few identity updates that I have run across. Conveniently, I feel the same about all of these. And that is...whatever.

If you want to update or refine your communication system, that's fine. If a refresh of the logo is part of that same system refinement, well, that's OK as well. But don't feed me a bunch of crap, and definitely don't tell me that you have a "new logo."

See if you can guess which BS goes with which "new logo."

“We opted to celebrate the original identity, while infusing within it a certain modernity and ‘evidence of hand’ that would prompt it to connect meaningfully with our targets”

"...re-imagined it from the ground up."

"It was always essential that the design maintained everything that we’ve all grown to know and love about ——— while creating a logotype that was more refined, durable, and that positioned the brand for expansion."

“...an effort to build awareness and trust.”

"The new monogram presents the brand as designer of open platforms for creativity, communication and sharing. "

I am a regular Pandora listener and finally noticed their new logo. Their product is one of those products that your focus is much more on the content than their branding, so for the new logo to slip by was not surprising. 

Their blog talks about the identity upgrade in connection to Pandora 5.0. http://blog.pandora.com/2013/09/18/the-pandora-brand-let-there-be-music/ 

Now, you and I both know that product improvements and brand redesigns don't have to go together, but I am a firm believer that doing the two together almost always has greater impact. 

Aesthetically I look forward to the "lights" (read: color) they talk about, but as for the logo itself....it looks a little chunky. Maybe it's the size. Maybe it's the weird serifs. I'm not sure. But I do know that kerning a word like this is a real bitch. 

Does anybody really care that BIng has a new logo?  Apparently even Bing doesn't care. Their site has yet to be updated. http://www.bing.com/

I would add all kinds of snarky comments about this logo, but I'll let the people over at Bing take all of the...credit.

"The wordmark is a customized version of our corporate font Segoe. We retained the lowercase ‘b’ in tribute to our Bing logo heritage and to provide a slightly less obtrusive stance. The descender on the ‘g’ has been slightly modified to curve upward in a friendlier manner and the cut on the top of the ‘b’ mirrors the angle on the cut of the ‘t’ in our Microsoft logo. The kerning pairs of the ‘i’ and the ‘n’ are exactly the same as the ‘i’ and the ‘n’ in the Windows wordmark. The symbol, a stylized ‘b’, evokes a sense of movement, direction and energy. The color loosely pays tribute to the orange dot from the previous Bing logo while also fully embracing the Microsoft color palette and taking inspiration from one quadrant of the corporate flag logo."

- Scott Erickson, Senior Director, Brand and Creative

(The amount of horse pucky in this quote makes me want to get my big rubber boots.)

The Absolut Company announced new designs for its "entire' range of flavoured vodkas. I say "entire" because apparently their "classic flavours" (Absolut Peppar, Absolut Citron, Absolut Kurant and Absolut Mandrin) are not part of their flavour range. Confusing.

Anyway, after looking at a bunch of images that you can get to via their web site http://www.media.absolutcompany.com/en/Initiatives/ABSOLUT-REDESIGN/ and reading about their goals and process, I have to say I like them....in concept. 

This must have been a great project. A giant, well-known company with loads of equity, history and, more than likely, money willing to make a big change to their identity. It looks like the designers (http://www.lippincott.com/) did all of their homework and extracted all of the best elements from the old logo. This new logo has a lot of my favorite attributes: boldness, freshness, cleanliness. But did they go too far? Perhaps.

It's easy to take design pot-shots, but I feel like the main element, the shield, could have maintained it's original shape or something very close. I'm sure the designers looked at this idea and perhaps felt that if they had come this far, why not clean up everything. 

The press release talks about this new logo being "evolutionary" and needing to stand out "...on television, the Web, mobile devices and other media...". The new design does a good job of fulfilling these new age requirements refreshingly well, but in the process, I feel like a little too much equity, and warmth, was lost. 

It's easy to throw out sketches and ideas after all of the hard work has been done by others, and I'm sure that the thinking and reasoning that got them to the new solution was sound and poured over with great detail, but I just couldn't resist.

I think I understand the strategy (retro/auto), but what a shame that it was so poorly executed. 

https://www.indygen.ro/

No sure about Yahoo!s strategy here. http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/57582020969/kicking-off-30-days-of-change

To me, running your company name through the old font library does not constitute "logo variation." 

So Radioshack has changed their logo once again (July 2013). It seems like they just changed to the serif "R" in circle just a few years ago, but apparently that change happened way back in 1995. I kind of like the serif "R", and I kind of like the new "R". Bold, clean, and jauntily offset in the circle to make room for the wordmark bar in the same font only now it's all lowercase. My biggest complaint would be the colors. What is with that pasty red and the non-commital brown that holds the, now lowercase, wordmark. I can just hear the "more approachable" term being tossed around creative presentations as justification for these poor choices. 

Finally getting around to commenting on the new Arby's identity.

J. L. Powell Where quality apparel is a point of pride: men's outerwear, sportswear, handcrafted boots and shoes, and accessories all made of the world's finest materials.