branding + identity

As predicted, the rebranding of the 89-year-old Art Directors Club has been greeted with controversy, at least here on UnBeige, where one astute commenter compared the new logo, designed by Trollbäck + Company, to that of David Barton Gym (an identity created by Edward Leida). Meanwhile, Jakob Trollbäck has been in touch to let us know that while hot pink leads the way—and the website—the color palette of the rebranded ADC also includes bold hues of purple, green, and cyan, as well as black and white. Taste the rainbow in the image at left. Meanwhile, the new identity was also developed with elasticity in mind. "As long as the boundaries are not violated, you can pimp it out," notes the rebranding presentation Trollbäck shared with us. We've posted a couple of "pimped" versions below.

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Following a couple of big rough patches after a decade of uncomfortably explosive growth, this has been the year for Starbucks' reinvention. Thus far, we've seen Arthur Rubinfeld come back, a complete LEED-happy redesign in the works for all their stores, and most recently, a virutually-brandless secret test shop, built to try out their new, more neighborhood-y ideas. Now they've started trying things out internationally with their first shop redesign at one of their (presumably thousand) London locations. Flickr-er Tiki Chris was on hand to take a batch of snapshots of the new look and it appears that it follows what's been planned out thus far for the chain's facelift, from the more communal layout to a generally more subdued atmosphere. Though we wonder, as nice as this all is, will re-doing all bazillion of their outlets to fit this model actually help them in any considerable way? We remember the first time or two we went into a Starbucks and thought, "Hey, this is nice." But now, decades later, from Beirut to Boston, they all look the same. So will this turn out to be just a move from one homogenous interior to another? We'll be interested to see.

When it comes to daunting projects fraught with politics and strong opinions, rebranding the 89-year-old Art Directors Club (ADC) is right up there with selecting an official canine mascot for the American Kennel Club. But the ADC has done it—and kept the fur flying to a minimum—thanks to a committee helmed by ADC board members Brian Collins and Jakob Trollbäck. Designed by Trollbäck + Company, the new identity replaces the vertically arrayed acronym that hinted at a fraternal order with a fresh logo that spells out the club's name in tight text. As for that sizzling hue, you might recognize it as the signature pink of thehappycorp, the recently shuttered company founded by ADC president Doug Jaeger, who is now with TAXI New York. The new logo is indicative of the ADC's renewed "sense of engagement and vitality," noted Jaeger. "It will make the club more visible, and is only the beginning of what we are about to do."

Among the things on the ADC's to-do list is its annual Designism event, which "explores the responsibilities and experiences of creatives and designers to drive social and political change." Designism 4.0 takes place next Wednesday, November 18, at the ADC Gallery in New York City. Featured speakers will include charismatic Design Observer Bill Drenttel, Pentagram powerhouse Paula Scher, and Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver at TOMS Shoes. Visit the ADC events calendar to register.

UPDATE: Veteran art director and font of knowledge Steven Guarnaccia has helpfully pointed out that the old ADC logo was based on Albrecht Durer's monogram. It was designed by Paula Scher.

Starting the week off, the biggest design-y conversations seem to be coming from the airline industry and so that is where we too must head. First comes the news that famous fashion designer and "Project Runway" and "Design Star" familiar, Cynthia Rowley, has been hired by United Airlines to redesign their employee uniforms, of which we're guessing there will be several dozen varieties, given that the company has over 40,000 employees working in numerous areas. The new outfits, according to the Chicago Tribune, will be unveiled in 2011 (assuming, of course, there's an airline industry left). Second in airline buzz comes this follow up from a story we posted back in early June, when an anonymous designer from American Airlines got in touch with writer/designer Dustin Curtis about how awful it was trying to get good design ideas through the gigantic company. Following up on the conversation, Curtis has posted news that just after his original post went live, American tracked down who had sent him the anonymous email and fired the designer for disclosing company information. Curtis sees this as yet another example of why the airline just doesn't get it, whereas others, like Joshua Blankenship, sees the whole thing as "creating controversy for its own sake."

The old saying goes that there are two constants in life, death and taxes. But were we to revise the list, we would say "death, taxes, and the legal battle between George Lucas and Andrew Ainsworth." You might recall our last post about that new addition toward the end of 2008, when a lawsuit was finally settled between the two, with Ainsworth, the designer of the original Stormtrooper costume from Star Wars, being found by the British court to have broken US copyright laws by continuing to sell replicas of the outfits without Lucas' permission. But it wasn't a total victory, as the judge also ruled that Ainsworth wouldn't have to pay any fines and he still hadn't broken any intellectual property laws in the UK. Now, because this issue will likely go on forever, Lucas' team has decided to try again in court by claiming the Stormtrooper attire are pieces of art and thus, copies should be punishable by British law and Ainsworth will need to shut down and pay up. It should make for an interesting trial, given Ainsworth's hand in the original creation of the works of art in question.

In just these past couple of years, we've seen some massive-undertaking redesigns from Starbucks getting back to their roots to McDonald's faux Arne Jacobs move, and even from companies like Motel 6. So it only seemed a matter of time before another biggie joined the fold. Sure enough, Burger King is the next in line for a complete makeover. We first told you about a test redesign in Houston the fast-food giant had undertaken back in early June, but now Ad Age has a look at the final-final concept that should start sweeping out across their burger empire over the next few years. It doesn't look entirely different from what we'd seen those few months back, with those more rounded edges and light-grey and red serving as the predominant colors, but maybe a bit more toned down and less "sports bar" than the earlier test model. Here's a description:

The design, which Burger King describes as "contemporary industrial," has a palette of white, black and black -- with flame designs -- and brick and concrete finishes. The company maintains that the atmosphere will "encourage intimate and engaging dining."

We're assuming that that "palette of white, black and black" is a typo. Whatever the palette, the first finished redesign update was done at "the chain's highest grossing" location, in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport (who knew?) and will cost each location "between $300,000 to $600,000 per restaurant." While that's a high fee, apparently all that encouragement of intimate and engaging dining should fetch double-digit increases in sales for each unit.

It's the Americans vs. the Australians again in a battle over branding, but this time it isn't Katy Perry vs. Katie Perry. Nope, this one finds computer giant Apple going after the Woolworths Supermarkets chain (unrelated to one we're familiar with in the US) over their now year-old rebranding effort which uses the shape of an apple to form the letter W. Apple apparently finds this a bit too close to their own iconic apple, particularly in that Woolworths has wandered into more tech-y merchandise at times, and as such, have decided to take the fight to Australian courts. Here's a bit about the rumble down under from the Aussie perspective:

Since it unveiled its new logo a year ago, Woolworths has been at pains to avoid using the word ''apple'' in commentary.

The man who designed it, Hans Hulsbosch, said Apple was taking trademark protection ''to the extreme''. ''Based on this logic, they would have to take action against every fruit-seller.''

All of this follows a suit early last year the company brought against the city of New York over a new GreeNYC logo.

Everything we know about Reno we learned from The Wizard, the 1989 film that starred Fred Savage as the brother of a socially awkward video game savant: it's "the biggest little city in the world," awash in neon, and the perfect backdrop for a Nintendo commercial masquerading as a movie. Twenty years later, Reno's charming old nickname has gone the way of Duck Hunt, and the city's tourism board is looking to improve upon the tagline used since 2002: "America's Adventure Place." The latest proposal? "Reno: A Little West of Center." Mayor Bob Cashell was not amused. "It embarrasses the city of Reno," he said last week. "I don't like that." For others, the suggested slogan was downright confusing. According to the Associated Press, Glenn Carano, marketing director of the Silver Legacy casino in downtown Reno, said it gave him "a little heartburn," adding, "I don't know what it means" (the slogan, presumably, not the heartburn). Now it's back to the drawing board to devise a new slogan for a marketing and advertising campaign slated to launch early next year.

Matthew Carter's plummy Yale typeface continues its serifed march through New Haven. It's latest convert? The distinctive Yale University Press logo, designed in 1985 by Paul Rand. As reported yesterday by The Yale Daily News and noted by Armin Vit on Brand New, the Yale University Press has begun phasing out the distinctive Rand logo in favor of a straight-up "Yale" (in the Yale typeface). It's reportedly an effort to unite the university and the press, which were once separate entities. If the goal is truly one of institutional harmony, Chris Rubino has devised an even better solution with the design compromise pictured at right. "I was disappointed to see the old Paul Rand logo replaced with the innocuous Yale logo," the designer tells us. "So I decided to Frankenstein them together to give a little nod to history. I hate seeing these things vanish."

This year has seen a lot of anger over re-branding efforts, from Tropicana's ill-fated container redesign to the flare up over Pepsi's multi-million dollar logo redo. Though it's been a few months since these hot outbursts, they certainly haven't gone away completely. We turn to something on a slightly smaller scale, but fun and topical none the less. In Bristol, hometown of street artist Banksy, the city council decided to spend millions of pounds in rebuilding the local industrial museum, technically "The Museum of Bristol" but known familiarly and on pieces of advertising as "M Shed." From that big pile of money, they'd set aside some to work with ad agency True North in order to come up with some sort of exciting new brand. Months later, what did they come up with? That's right: "M Shed." Their bill? £100,000. This has locals up in arms, asking why their tax dollars went into a project only to have the same name come out, and the city council responding in a sort of "It's been decided. Deal with it." fashion:

"The review is still on-going, however, the re-branding has been agreed and is going ahead.

"It will give the new museum a distinct identity and, at the same time demonstrate its direct relationship to the council's other, excellent museums, galleries and archives."

To be fair, we haven't read if the fee covered just the re-naming or also included design work, which would make this a whole different story, to be sure. Though judging from the response and the involvement by taxpayer activist groups, it does seem a little like that was the entirety of what was included in the fee.