How much CRAP can they spew out, over a simple logo change?
All they did was change the font to Arial and make the whole thing lower case!

BLANK is pleased to announce that it has changed its logo, to reflect a more modern and innovative feel. This change of logo comes together with BLANK’s Head Office move to BLANK.

The logo change has been long overdue, and excitingly, not going outside the company and spending a vast amount of money, we were able to keep this project in house, allowing our design team to develop concepts and present their ideas and recommendations. With the outstanding efforts of BLANK and the design team, the final outcome has been exceptional and truly innovative.

The notion behind the business cards is to allow each individual to select the colour that suits them, from the range provided – an extremely forward thinking and innovative concept which allows employees to reflect their own personality.
The intention is not to change everything overnight, so as to avoid unwarranted cost to the company, but rather a gradual transition via a viral marketing campaign. Therefore, as and when the stationary items run out accordingly, the new logo will be implemented. All our advertising will reflect the new logo immediately.

The Logo change has been sanctioned by the executives and overall feedback has been exceptionally positive. The transformation depicts a new “real and approachable company…it shows our flexibility and capacity of customisation and introduces an emotional element in our brand which follows the newest trends in branding known as emotional branding” states BLANK, Marketing Communications Manager, Europe.

The logo represents a very exciting time for the company as we come together in the new office and move forward, and there are too many and too numerous individuals to thank for this outcome. New Brand guidelines are currently being developed and will be distributed upon completion.

A special thank you extends to BLANK and the design team for their collaborative efforts in creating a fresh logo which emphasises our ambition and commitment to being a creative and innovative, forward thinking global company.

 

Thank god someone smacked marketing back to reality:

As you would all be aware we recently made an announcement that we would be making changes to the BLANK brand logo.

After further review and with agreement from the Executive Team it has been decided not to proceed with this change and we will continue to use the existing BLANK brand logo style. This decision has been made after consideration of the core strengths and value of the existing brand logo and balancing this against the implications of such a change.

We will be continuing a major project to drive greater standardisation of the use of the brand right across the company and will be looking at making changes in the way it can be used to ensure the right balance of flexibility and consistency to ensure that the great asset of our brand is both grown and protected.

If you have been involved in projects incorporating the change and need any clarification on the right style to be used please contact BLANK or BLANK.

 Please tell me the bold stuff is from the original email.  It makes the back-patting so much tastier when they do that.

 Why can't more companies have the sense to not change their logo?

Before (1994):

After (2008):

To: marketing department

From: ActionMan

Subject: Re: Logo change

In regards to your email I would like to suggest that you keep your masturbation private and out of the company mailing list.

Thank you 

Changing of a logo and/or rebranding is the first sign that a company has really bad products and can't make enough money.

Why fix the product when you can fix the PERCEPTION of the product instead?

Whenever I'm working for a company that announces something of this nature, I start tidying up my CV.

Company I worked for paid some friend-of-a-friend-of-the-ceo's-wife to create a new "look and feel" for the corporate "presence".  As far as i was concerned, anybody could pull up the Pantone color sheet and pick a couple that were just as good.  Here was the fun part, though:  They used some goofy font that was basically Garamond with some minor tweaks.  The internal comm group went nuts creating new Powerpoint and Word templates, etc., and distributed the font to everyone.  Then someone pointed out that the font cost $250 per seat to use...  (Who the heck pays for fonts these days anyway, besides those Mac-using, black-turtle-neck-wearing artsy-fartsy graphic-design-wannabes?)  So they sent out another e-mail politely asking everyone to delete the font from their computers, and we'd just keep using Arial, and one of the Admin Assistants would be the "font master" for corporate-branded stuff.

Several years there was a Dilbert cartoon about Dogbert as a consultant creating a logo for a company. Dogbert drops his coffee mug on a piece of paper and lifts it up leaving a messy circular stain and states "There's your new logo". At the time my brother was working for Olivetti (whose new logo at the time was remarkably similar in looks to what Dogbert created) and they were explicitly told *not* have that Dilbert cartoon up on the walls.

 

TehFreek:

 Why can't more companies have the sense to not change their logo?

Sorry dude, you fail.

The new logo is much more pleasant-professinal looking and timelasting than the first one.  

The first one was overdue back in 1999. It looks like a logo from a company that bursted when that interwebz bubbly thing went off, and the freesbee through-the-head thing looks like student work.

T he only thing I find in the second one is... did Dell buy Bell?

 

Where the heck came the idea that "lowercase" means "modern" from?

Also, BLANK logo is an interesting idea.

Spectre:

Where the heck came the idea that "lowercase" means "modern" from?

I'm sure it's from IM and text messages.

OzPeter:

Several years there was a Dilbert cartoon about Dogbert as a consultant creating a logo for a company. Dogbert drops his coffee mug on a piece of paper and lifts it up leaving a messy circular stain and states "There's your new logo".

 

 

       Ah, yes, the "brown circle of quality."  That always reminded me of Avaya's red circle logo.

 

ActionMan:

All they did was change the font to Arial and make the whole thing lower case!

BLANK is pleased to announce that it has changed its logo

 

 

So then instead of BLANK, should you have written blank?

At first I thought you worked for Xerox until I saw that they didn't go through with the change.

And I agree that constant re-branding is stupid.  Maybe after a merger, buyout, or other big shift in the company.  But don't rebrand just for the sake of being fresh.  A familiar brand (and that includes logo) is a valuable thing indeed.

belgariontheking:

Spectre:

Where the heck came the idea that "lowercase" means "modern" from?

I'm sure it's from IM and text messages.

Can't be! I'm sure everybody IMs in proper case.

ActionMan:

there are too many and too numerous individuals to thank for this outcome.

 

Too many *and* too numerous? Wow! If only they were abundant, copious and plentiful as well, then there would be a lot of them!

gasman:

ActionMan:

there are too many and too numerous individuals to thank for this outcome.

 

Too many *and* too numerous? Wow! If only they were abundant, copious and plentiful as well, then there would be a lot of them!

There used to be, but they were all made redundant by the Department of Redundancy Department.

ActionMan:

excitingly, not going outside the company and spending a vast amount of money,

Back around 1993, when using primary shapes to represent OOP was the cool thing to do, before the days when "just google it" was even a theoretical possibility, I was walking past our marketing department when I saw a group of them gathered around something chattering excitedly. I peeked over someone's shoulder, said "that looks like Electronic Arts' logo", and walked on.

Five minutes later I walk past again, only to be pounced on. "What do you mean it looks like EA's logo?"

"Well, you've got a square, circle, and triangle in primary colors. Not that different from their logo."

Marketing had decided to redesign our logo without doing any research whatsoever. There's a reason the pros got lots of money back then.