There have been a number of high profile rebranding disasters in the last couple of years where consumers revolted and demanded their old brands back (rightfully so, they are the actual brand owners anyway). When the companies reacted they did it bringing their old logos back rather quickly, such as in the Tropicana and most recently Gap rebranding fiascos. But going back to an old logo 10 years later is quite an unusual branding move and JAL (Japan Airlines) has just done that.
The old JAL logo was designed in 1959 and 40 years later JAL felt it was time for an update. Unfortunately they went from a logo that conveyed a powerful meaning (in Japanese culture, the crane is viewed as a symbol of long life, prosperity and good health, and red is the color of happiness) to a nondescript logo design. It could have been a coincidence but soon after the new logo was implemented JAL started a steep decline that culminated with a bankruptcy filing in 2010.
JAL's president Masaru Onishi just announced that the old crane logo is coming back (untouched, just in case) and so returning to their core values. The japanese consumers didn't revolt when they took their logo away but ultimately they managed to get their logo back.
Read the full story in @issue
There have been a number of high profile rebranding disasters in the last couple of years where consumers revolted and demanded their old brands back (rightfully so, they are the actual brand owner
Is the new Harvard University Press logo too radical?
First, I'm an admirer of the iconic brand design work that Chermayeff & Geismar have done over the years. That been said, the first image that came to my mind when I saw this logo was a jail cell window, not books. Although the simplicity of the design works well in the digital media environment I was expecting some visual connection with the original Harvard Press logo. Perhaps a modern visual interpretation of the 3 books that have identified Harvard and Harvard Press for so long? The new logo in my opinion although clean, feels stark and a bit cold, more appropriate for a bank than for one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world. Too radical of a departure, I wish the character and weight of the Harvard brand was somehow still present. Just an opinion.
First, I'm an admirer of the iconic brand design work that Chermayeff & Geismar have done over the years.
Occupy Wall Street logo by Javier Romero
Occupy Wall Street logo by Seymour Schwast
Occupy Wall Street logo by Chermayeff & Geismar
"What's a movement without a logo?" claims The New York Times in a recent article pointing to the fact that the growing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations against inequality and corporate greed lack lack a visual symbol, a unifying identity for the cause to rally around. The article features logo designs by well-known designers such as Seymour Chwast with a "corrupt robber baron" illustrative symbol and Chermayeff & Geismar with a red circle confining the financial center typographic concept.
What an interesting design challenge I thought, and took on the design exercise as well. My concept integrates the snake representing greed, the dollar sign and the Wall Street "S" communicating financial power, and the word "Occupy" on a protester's banner slashing through the snake as it claims Wall Street for the movement.
Let me know your thoughts or even better. Share your logo concepts. Email them to info@jrdg.com
"What's a movement without a logo?" claims The New York Times in a recent article pointing to the fact that the growing Occupy Wall Street demonstr
August 15, 20011. This week Budweiser just presented its new can design with a simpler look that tones down its traditional (and busy) seal and divides the package into clearly defined red and white fields succeeding in making it more contemporary and impactful. The iconic Budweiser "bowtie" takes center stage with the reported goal of encouraging people to order the beer by its full name, instead of just "bud". Although the large "bowtie" works much better now as an instant brand identifier, there are no visual cues that encourage consumers to order the beer by its full name, on the contrary, now the Budweiser name is not as clearly readable in white over the red "bowtie" as it was before in blue over white. See more images and commentary on the new Budweiser can design in the designboom website and more on the background and evolution of the Budweiser can in its press release page.
August 15, 20011.
During the critical shopping months of the last holiday season J. C. Penney beat millions of websites to the top of the search results rankings on many competitive keywords such as "dresses", "furniture" or "home decor". J. C. even beat Samsonite on searches for "Samsonite carry on luggage". Not an easy thing to do, taking into consideration that Google's goal is to find the most relevant websites. Is it J. C. Penney a more relevant search result for Samsonite searches than Samsonite.com? So how this could have possible happened?
It turns out that J. C. Penney's Search Engine Optimization consulting firm used a "link scheme" a trick banned and highly penalized by Google, thousands of random websites with enormous amounts of keyword links to J. C. Penney's website landing pages which automatically made it the most relevant website for those keywords.
But the intriguing part of this story is that it took evidence collected by The New York Times for Google to take some action. Within hours Penney's rankings for many keywords went from number 1 to 70 and lower. Still why it took Google so long to detect such a blatant and widespread deception? it could be that the $2.46 million a month J. C. Penney spends on paid search ads made Google look the other way?
The European Union is already investigating possible antitrust abuses by Google. Money talks even for godly Google. Read the full story.
During the critical shopping months of the last holiday season J. C.
JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011
View more presentations from JWTIntelligence.
Don't be put off by the length of this presentation. Once you get started you won't be able to stop. It covers a broad range of trends, from the increasingly dominant role of mobile as the "Everything Hub" to counter-trends where people are embracing De-Teching, taking digital downtime breaks to relieve stress. This information it's a good trends catch-up for just about everyone.
I highly recommend reading this thoughtful NPR article. It makes a good point about how we are constantly selling and buying (more than we realize), with every tweet and every Facebook and LinkedIn post. It made me stop in my tracks for a moment. Social media can be overwhelming and we are part of the reason why. As the article advices, maybe we should just pick and choose better what we put out there.
I highly recommend reading this thoughtful NPR. It makes a good point about how we are constantly selling and buying (more than we realize
