There’s a spirited debate going on over at Brand New about some images that have been released that depict some new brand identities for a number of Pepsi products. There are still tons of questions as to whether these are actually real images from Pepsi or not, but the BIG debate is whether or not it is an effective change. You be the judge:
Old
New
In addition to refreshing the Pepsi brand, it appears Pepsico is poised to launch revised brand identities for a number of their other products as well:
My take? I’m glad you asked…I think they’re pretty decent designs. They’d hold up for any new product and would probably be compelling enough to encourage someone to give them a try. But for Pepsi, a product that has been in the market forever, I question whether these identities fit with the brand that they have spent milions and millions of dollars building in the mind of the consumer over time. The logo stands up for me - but the cleanliness of the rest of the design doesn’t allow for the edginess that Pepsi has always put forth through their marketing efforts in years past.
In other words, I think it’s a good design, but it misses the essence of the Pepsi brand. I don’t think it will be as effective as they’d like. What’s your take?
As a general rule, when we are designing brand identities and specifically logos, we strive to create something that has a long shelf life and doesn’t quickly date itself - to do this we have to have a healthy knowledge of the latest design trends - what’s hot and what’s not.
We recently came across a really informative article from LogoLounge about a number of trends that have begun to emerge in recent history and wanted to pass it along. You can read the full article HERE, and see examples of logos that exemplify these trends.
A few of the common themes that were discovered include:
There has been less emphasis on sustainability or general “greenness” in logo design. There’s plenty of natural imagery, but being “green” doesn’t seem all that unique anymore.
Colors are becoming more vivid. Desaturation has drained away, and the chroma factor pumped up.
There’s an overall move toward cleanliness - in type, in line, in color - as if ideas are getting more and more succinct. It may be an indication of the degree of seriousness with which branding is now regarded.
Less is more common: less calligraphy, less Photoshop tricks, less artificial highlights.
Found pattern and illustration hang on and on and on. With a bottomless treasure chest of visual history constantly at the ready through retail collections and over the internet, it’s a direction that’s not likely to run its course soon, if ever.
Here are some examples that I thought were particularly striking:
EJ passed along a great article from the New York Times that relates back to my post back on Blog Action Day about poverty. The article, which you can read HERE, addresses some of the design innovations that are helping those living in poverty to live better, like the water-toting Q-Drum pictured above, or the Lifestraw pictured below, which helps to kill bacteria in water as the user drinks.
These are simple, yet elegant design ideas but they illustrate that much of design, whether it be graphic, industrial or otherwise, is actually as much about problem solving as making something look pretty or cool.
‘They’ always said you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover - but ‘they’ probably never took into account a site like http://www.judgeby.com. This new site allows you to literally judge a book by the design of its cover, and compare your rating with the actual Amazon rating. It’s surprisingly difficult - I found that most of my ratings were lower than the actual Amazon ratings.
What this tells me is that there are a lot of great books out there with sub-par cover designs. Of course they can get the ratings once people have picked up the book…but what if the design doesn’t entice someone to make the purchase in the first place? I’m almost certain this is happening in many cases - I admit, I often buy books because they LOOK interesting. I’m no anthropologist, but I’ll bet many others do the same thing.
Check it out for yourself - you’ll be surprised at how many five-star books have two-star cover designs.
Last Thursday started out like any other Thursday, really. That all changed when I checked in on Twitter (are you following me yet?) and found a link posted by another Baltimore marketing communications firm at 9:03a.m. that directed me to this image:
From that point, I knew something was brewing. I waited patiently for this challenge to surface, and at 9:48a.m. the next day, it arrived:
Nifty little video, there. MGH WOM, I know you’re listening. The training has begun and it is officially on, my friends. We do not take to challenges lightly and will come prepared. Stay tuned.
Some of you might remember the buzz recently about a few high profile sightings of faceless people at well-attended, upscale events, including Wimbledon.
Word spread quickly that it was some sort of viral campaign from sports car manufacturer Lotus. I was intrigued, so I went to the campaign Web site, www.facelesspeople.com, and signed up to be kept informed about new developments.
The campaign payoff has arrived. I recently received this email in my inbox:
The email above directed me to either contact my local dealer (I wish) or learn more about the Lotus Evora on the model’s Web site:
I think this was a pretty well-executed, well-designed campaign. It stays true to the Lotus brand, which has always represented automobiles that emphasize function just a little more than form. The cars were built to appeal to those who don’t want to blend in, and I’m sure that was the brief for this campaign as well. You have to love campaigns that are creative and unique but also drive home a message or distinction for the product or service they’re advertising.
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