branding + identity

Following up on a post from earlier this month, the PRI/WNYC program Studio 360 has launched the results of its "Reimagining the Rainbow" project in their latest episode which airs this weekend (but you can hear it right now using the player below). You'll recall that the show was asking listeners (and the firm Worldstudio) to redesign the gay pride branding, trying to find something new beyond the familiar rainbow flag. The submitted entries to Flickr were a mixed bag, as these things tend to be (this was our favorite), but some were pretty interesting. But by far the most fun of all of it is listening to Isaac Mizrahi, stepping in as guest judge to pick his favorite entry. Paper recently put together this interview with Mr. 360 himself, Kurt Andersen, who had this great quote about how they landed Mizrahi:

I was originally talking to him and I happened to mention that we were doing this idea and he said "Oh I'd pay to be the judge of that." And I told him, "you don’t have to!" He said that among his friends they argue about which of his friends is the king of the gays and this is chance to prove it.

If there's one promising thing we've been hearing about all this recession/depression business is that people are yearning to return to the familiar. Sure, that means spending more time with family and inexpensive camping trips and maybe reading more books and all that lovely heartwarming, "a return to simpler times" stuff, but where our hopes reside is the idea that older or original logos might start coming back into fashion. Perhaps the first indication of this was the announcement that the Philadelphia 76ers have decided to return to the branding they used for almost twenty years, between 1977 to 1996 (which was a close offshoot from their original one that premiered back in 1963). Back in all its red, white and blue, with a fancy type that makes you just want to stand up and sing the Star Spangled Banner (like we just did), it replaces the dull logo they'd been using for the past decade, around the same time a lot of professional sports teams decided that uninspired branding was the way to go. So we applaud you, 76ers, for returning to better times. Now it's your turn to make things right, UPS.

Our friends at Duffy & Partners are taking their hometown for a ride—in a good way. Among the branding and design firm's latest projects is developing the name and identity for Minneapolis's new bicycle share program, one of the first in the United States (merci, Paris!). While descriptive, Minneapolis Bike Share Program doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so Duffy & Partners decided to go with Nice Ride Minnesota. "The name, Nice Ride, pays homage to the cultural reference of 'Minnesota Nice,' while also capturing the 'nice' traits of the program," said Joe Duffy, the firm's chairman and principal, in a press release. "It's a nice way to get around town, it's a nice way to be green, and it's already part of the biking culture vernacular, as in 'hey, nice ride!'" The identity created by Duffy & Partners (pictured above) will be on the bikes, bike kiosks, banners, t-shirts, website, and all collateral for Nice Ride. Set to launch next May with 1,000 bikes in 80 self-service kiosks throughout Minneapolis, the program recently received a $1.75 million grant and will eventually expand to St. Paul and other high-density neighborhoods around the Twin Cities.

In reading through the company's long and storied history, Packard Bell is one of those businesses that has gone through so many owners and types of products that the only thing that one might be able to cling to with the brand is its brand (and mostly just the name). After the company was sold yet again last year to another computer manufacturer, Acer, it seemed as though it might be winding down to its final resting place. But no such luck for Packard Bell, which is unfortunate given that Acer has decided to relaunch the company with a complete re-branding effort, welcoming it into its new life with a very bad logo. It's a three-quarter, 3D modeled view of "PB," which is apparently the hip new way of saying "Packard Bell." Frankly, it doesn't make any sense to us in the slightest. What's even stranger, the relaunched "PB" is rolling out a new laptop they hired the firm Pininfarina to design for them. How can you hire the same company who designs Ferraris while you're also creating a logo that's kind of painful to look at? Though to be fair, Pininfarina has designed some lousy looking stuff too, so maybe "PB" is being consistent. For more on the new branding effort, we recommend heading over to Brand New, to read Armin Vit's full report and a very funny dissection of a press release.

The company behind brands such as Reddi-wip, Chef Boyardee, Swiss Miss, and Orville Redenbacher's has retooled its identity. In place of the serifed, rather woefully kerned logo of old, ConAgra Foods is rolling out a more lovable look. There's a lot going on here: a cleaner typeface, a leafy "r," a pinch of avocado to go along with a deeper red, and a tagline—"Food You Love"—that the company hopes will "reinforce the individual company brands that consumers love." And we have yet to meet anyone who doesn't love Reddi-wip. There's also a "spoon in plate" icon that we initially mistook as representing someone in good spirits who is about to get poked in the eye with a spoon, or perhaps a gleeful pirate with an umoored eyepatch. "We believe the new brand identity for the company captures both our heritage and our progressive spirit in becoming better and better every day for our consumers and our customers," said ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin in a press release. Most importantly, the new identity, which debuted Tuesday in an ad campaign that will hit print, broadcast, and online outlets, emphasizes food. Last year, ConAgra sold its commodity trading, fertilizer, and ethanol businesses (which are much more difficult to love), and now focuses exclusively on branded packaged food.

Thanks to a tip, it looks like our friends from PRI and WNYC's Studio 360 are planning to give the gay community a little make-over. They've decided that the pride branding, the ubiquitous rainbow, feels a bit dated and needs something new. So they've snapped up (possibly a few) design firms to come up with something, as well as plans to ask their listeners to cook something up as well. Got an idea? Send it in to Studio 360 Flickr site. Here's a bit:

We're all for gay pride...but rainbows are so...1978. The rainbow flag has flown since the late 70s. We think it's time for a makeover. Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is asking listeners to redesign the gay flag for the 21st century. Should it be pink and sparkly? Dark and stately? The design firm Worldstudio is also taking on the assignment and will present its new concept, along with the best listener submissions, the weekend of June 27th.

We understand that you're saving the latest issue of The New Yorker (and the promise of a swell fact piece by Patricia Marx about the wacky world of high-end timepieces as she reports from Baselworld) for your imminent Memorial Day weekend plane/train/car/van/burro ride to Bilbao/Sag Harbor/Hoboken/Niagara Falls/The Grand Canyon, but we simply couldn't resist sharing this excellent piece—a bite-sized Shouts & Murmurs that sneaks in among this week's Talk of the Town casuals—by George Meyer about the wondrous absurdities of frequent flyer program branding. And so we present "The Privileged Few." Return your seat to its upright position, stow your tray table, and take a read:

Good afternoon. This is your pre-boarding announcement for Flight 505 to Milwaukee. All first-class and business-class passengers, passengers needing special assistance, and families travelling with small children may now board the aircraft.

We also invite any Platinum Club, ProTravel Select, Apogee Plus, and Sigma Alliance cardholders to board at this time.

Thank you for waiting. We now welcome members of Skyline Advantage, Priority Partners, Front Row Preferred, Exclusa, Summit V.I.P., Head of the Line, A-List Connections, Imperial Privilege, InCrOwD, Icarus Prime Choice, Top Rank Silk, and Top Rank Crystal Reserve. You may now board the aircraft.

continued...

When Paper magazine editor Kim Hastreiter asked 15 of her "personal favorite fearless communicators" to take their best crack at rebranding America for Paper's annual design issue, Geoff McFetridge came up with something that makes cents in a cash-poor world. In addition to tweaking the design of the flag, the Canadian-born artist drew a swarm of busy Americans in profile with Lincoln pennies for heads. "I was thinking of a way to give a new iconic value to the lowly penny," McFetridge told Paper of his copper-topped scheme. "American history is an interesting way to describe what America is like today. I like to think there is a little bit of Lincoln in all Americans." Click here for Hastreiter's design brief and to see how designers including Peter Buchanan-Smith, Shepard Fairey, Ivan Chermayeff, and George Lois responded to Paper's national rebranding challenge.

Letter logo legal battle alert! The latest lawsuit? Gucci, the garish crown jewel in PPR's vast retail empire, is suing Guess? No really, try and guess. That's right, in a case that has the potential for some good old-fashioned "Who's on first?"-style laughs, the defendant is Guess?, Inc., the designer denim pioneer turned lifestyle brand that we stopped paying much attention to when it signed up Paris Hilton as the face of its Marciano line.

In a complaint filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court, Gucci accused Guess? of knocking off Gucci-trademarked designs—including a green and red stripe, a repeated interlocking GG mark, and a stylized G mark (like those pictured on the fetching Guess? belts above)—in an effort to "Gucci-ize" its product line. Also, it's a conspiracy! According to PPR, the Guess? products are "part of a sophisticated and elaborate scheme to target Gucci, to create products that are similar in appearance to the most popular and best-known Gucci products." In addition to unspecified money damages, Gucci is seeking a court order that bars Guess? from using the disputed designs and wants Guess? to destroy all existing items that bear the allegedly infringing marks. Guess?, which reported net revenue of $2.09 billion for the fiscal year that ended January 31, has yet to comment publicly on the suit.

Speaking of characters, in a bizarre, extremely quick move, Ask.com has decided to un-retire their spokes-drawing Jeeves, as well as their original name, AskJeeves.com, just two years after they made the departure. Which made us ask, "He was gone?" but we clearly must not have fit in the target demographic, as the company has said that the decision to bring back the spokescharacter was due in part to two years of constant requests from users who missed him (we should also note that two years in internet time is twenty years in human time, so while it doesn't seem very long, think about what you were doing on the internet two years ago). Though while that's the company line, that users were clamoring for Jeeves' return, some viewers of the change see it as another desperate attempt to slice off a piece of Google's near monopoly on search, with Ask making yet another re-branding effort and/or realizing they may have screwed up by changing what made them kind of unique in the first place: a character. But that's all for you to decide, dear reader. In the interim, make sure you check out the new 3D-remaking of Jeeves, which we kinda like okay.