In order to come up with the right design solution, you need to look through a good hundred examples of how it was done before you. We publish a translation from the online resource Co.Design about the best and worst corporate identity redesigns. And here you can read about the logo redesigns that shook the Internet community in the past year. Read and use!
Brand design development: examples
It’s never been harder to develop a good brand identity. Brands inhabit dozens of platforms, so they need to look good on billboards and smartphone screens alike. Encouraged by the simplicity of the web attack couch critics by confusing companies, forcing them to choose less ambitious designs. Still, there are brands that have ventured into meaningful, sometimes even bold rebranding of their identity this year. Naturally, not all of them succeeded. We’ll tell you about another year in branding – the bad, the good and the most controversial.
Identity development: the best of the best
Grubhub
Grubhub started as a small startup. But in 2016, this 12-year-old company served 7 million people and 44,000 restaurants. The company needed a grown-up redesign to match its growth – a primitive but polished look that would work on both a national and hyperlocal level. Wolff Olins took on the project and rebranded Grubhub, emphasizing lifestyle photography (focusing on Airbnb and Apple ads) and lettering. There are also animated product icons and a custom set of mmmojis to the GrubHub site. All in all, the new site looks fresh and professional, but has retained its patchwork style of collage illustrations. The brand hopes it will convince the shrinking but still significant segment of people who still prefer to order food over the phone to switch to using the web-based service.
MasterCard
Until this year, the MasterCard logo hadn’t changed significantly in 20 years. The way we pay for our purchases is constantly transforming, so MasterCard . Pentagram partner Michael Bierut and designer Hamish Smyth tackled the project for the first redesign in two decades. They declined to make drastic changes to the familiar intersection of the red and yellow circle on the logo. Instead, they modernized it by removing the effect in the center and placing the brand name outside the symbol. This was necessary to utilize the familiar symbol without the typographic element. This makes it easy to use the identity on different platforms and place it on any product, such as the MasterPass payment system and the Priceless rewards program. The logo is optimized for the mobile screen, as the main share of transactions takes place using a smartphone.
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Helia
Sometimes, lesser-known companies strike harder with a brilliant redesign. Such was the case for Helia, a data and analytics company whose client list includes companies like Unilever, easyJet, IBM, Diageo and Sony PlayStation. Developed by New York-based design agency Form&, the new brand identity is based on a simple circular logo with a saturated gradient. The fill changes color depending on the weather and terrain. Thus, digitally and in print, the logo’s color is a unique identifying mark. Catchy redesign!
In May, Instagram shocked its fans by introducing a cropped Polaroid icon with a rainbow gradient superimposed on it. The new logo has interesting details: a picture that shows the evolution of photography from movie cameras to smartphones, and a rainbow gradient that made the icon stand out among the mass of other icons (and slightly reminded of the bright stripes on the previous logo). Not surprisingly, it sparked a lot of discussion.
Zendesk
Zendesk, a company that provides customer service software, undertook one of the boldest logo redesigns ever: from a cartoonish smiling Buddha to an elegant tandem of geometric shapes. The brand identity retained its playfulness. Each service Zendesk received a unique animated logo. For example, Help Center is two arrows, one after the other. The Support logo is a tall triangle leaning against a smaller triangle. The best thing about this redesign project is realizing why this system of geometric shapes is so charming. It is based on a toy wooden constructor from the founder’s childhood.
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Zocdoc
Health care service Zocdoc launched in 2007 with a traditional, conventional logo that the founders bought for $80. The business is now valued at $1.8 million and is rapidly expanding its business model to attract new patients and private physicians. Zocdoc realized it could afford a new corporate identity. Wolff Olins redesigned, creating a disposable, human-based identity with a small anthropomorphic logo that transforms the letter Z into a smiling facial expression. The new logo can look sad, happy, pensive or relieved. It expresses the same range of emotions Americans go through when trying to remember the details of your health insurance or make an appointment today instead of three weeks from now.
VSCO
The popular photo editing app undertook a major corporate identity redesign this year, with both the interface (launching in June) and the identity (new in February) being affected. The app’s style redesign was based on the app’s gothic interface and a system of graphic spots, almost emoji icons that create a visual alphabet. The new round logo signifies the unification of a global community of users who now not only edit photos in VSCO, but also share them. VSCO is now like Instagram, only more highly artistic. It has a user base of professional and amateur photographers. The new black, white and pink design reflects the trending app in the best light.
The most controversial corporate identity rebrandings
THE MET
This year’s rebranding award, which has generated the most heated controversy, goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum overhauled its logo and identity – to the chagrin of many designers – and unveiled a new logo that displays the museum as “The Met.” Two words placed one above the other on a red background have replaced the stylized M-logo, which was originally taken from a wood engraving by Luca Pacioli. The Wolff Olins company handled the project. The information was presented to the press before the official announcement, when the museum itself sent the press materials. As a rule, when elements of an identity are shown without explanation, they lend themselves to harsh criticism, especially key ones like this project. It’s been a while, everyone has gotten used to the logo by now. We loved the new design and are happy that it has caught on as a result.
Rebranding: Mistakes 2016
Uber
When Uber’s new logo came out in February, it was ridiculed. It looked like PacMan. The logo is both too corporate and overdesigned. On top of that, it’s poorly executed. Still, much like Instagram’s history (with a better, more thoughtful redesign), Uber demonstrates how quickly everyone gets used to a bad rebrand – especially in apps we use frequently, almost subconsciously clicking on the icon.
Trump-Pence
And so we come to the worst brand design of 2016. We wish we didn’t have to say it, but without a doubt, Trump’s campaign logo wins. The animation speaks all by itself. The campaign was met with condemnation from the online community, so the logo was replaced with something less controversial. But it was too late. The picture has been lodged in our heads forever. With Trump’s reign looming, we want to remember this GIF forever.
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