Friday 19 October 2012

Boooooooring

Two major corporations recently launched new branding and both have been accused of lacking imagination.  My view is that the new logos for Ebay and Microsoft are just bland and dull. You have to wonder how many millions were spent producing something that a 5 year old could have made accidentally on Word in a minute.
 





 
Is this a new trend... boring and amateurish corporate designs?  Is the simplicity meant to show that the company is easy to deal with?   Or does it just say that they couldn't be bothered?
 
A logo is the entrance to a company's branding and if you get that wrong, you have already closed the door to potential new interest. Sub-consciously, we make judgements just by considering a logo. These new designs are so dull, that you wonder if the business has given up being innovative.
 
When you have countless websites saying that your new logo is just boring, you have certainly done something wrong. Business Insider even offers alternative suggestions and the mighty Microsoft were criticised on dozens of renowned sites.
  
A couple of years ago, clothing shop 'Gap' launched a new logo and although their existing one wasn't too impressive, the backlash was severe enough for them to cancel the rebrand completely within days... at huge cost!
 
The mighty Apple don't escape either. Although their main logo is simple and effective, many said that their iTunes logo was generic and forgettable - not good press for one of your most important assets.  I love a well designed logo, iTunes isn't one.
 
Despite 2012 being possible the best year ever in London (and further afield I am sure) due to the Jubilee celebrations and the amazing spectical of the Olympics, I never warmed to the London 2012 logo.  It's certainly not boring... I just didn't like it.  It grated with me every time I saw it and still does!  And I still don't understand how it cost £400,000 to design.
  
But some companies get it really wrong however...
 
     









 
 
Locum obviously didn't test theirs with the public first:
 



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