McDonald’s Now Serving McDesign

We give McDonald’s a lot of grief here on UnBeige. Other than their brilliant branding and discontinued coffee stirrers, we haven’t had much to rave about design-wise. Maybe that will change, we thought, when seeing Alice Rawsthorn‘s scoop on the new design formula found at a few London locations (above).

Or not. Tossing a few candy-colored Arne Jacobsen chairs under some Ikea-looking lights is hardly a step forward. (Note the existing tile pattern and weird abstract artwork you’ll find in every McDonald’s, neither of which they felt the need to replace.) Rawsthorn thinks it’s kind of a modernist, design-for-all effort, especially using Jacobsen’s chairs, which were made for public places. Not so, says one industrial designer who’s pissed that the Jacobsen Egg chairs got McMuffined:

Take Jasper Morrison, who describes it as “visual pollution” and “corporate marketing at its ugliest.

Maybe because they didn’t buy his chairs?

Rawsthorn says if the new design is embraced, it will roll out throughout Europe. But according to an article last month, it’s already working. Oh, those Europeans. Such suckers for Le Big Mac.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.