From WTF to TFW – How a Blog Caused a Logo Change for Wisconsin

Earlier this year, one of my favorite blogs, Your Logo Makes Me Barf, wrote a post called WTF Wisconsin? that pointed out a glaring error made by the Wisconsin Tourism Federation.  If you don’t know what the acronym WTF stands for, I’ll tell you — “What the fu*k?”  Take a look at the logo below.

While it’s surprising that no one within or working with the Wisconsin Tourism Federation mentioned this problem to them, the more interesting point of the story comes from how they learned about it.  The power of the blogosphere is demonstrated once again with the WTF Wisconsin? post on Your Logo Makes Me Barf.  The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote about it on the same day in their Hubbub blog.

Perhaps the more unfortunate part of this story though is something mentioned on another of my favorite blogs — Brand New.  The organization took the time and invested the money to change their name after realizing the error (the new name is Tourism Federation of Wisconsin), but they just flipped the letters in the logo instead of creating a new one.  Now that’s a missed opportunity as this logo leaves a lot to be desired (see below).

Of course, the lesson to learn is — always make sure multiple people review your work.  You never know what you might miss.

When the World is Unstable, Brands Have Success Returning to the Past

The past always brings people a feeling of security and peace of mind.  Earlier this week, I wrote a post on the Corporate Eye blog about brands needing to focus on messages related to longevity these days when economies are weak and the future is uncertain for so many consumers (you can read that post here if you’d like).  While messages about longevity and security in the future are very important, there is also something to be said for looking at the lessons and success from the past and repeating them to leverage the commonly held perception that the past connotes feelings of security.

The Philadelphia 76ers have done exactly that by replacing the modern logo the team launched just over 10 years ago with a new version, which is almost exactly identical to the team’s original logo before the change in the late 1990s.   Check out the logo launched in 1997/98 on the left below vs. the new logo launched in 2009 on the right.

And now, take a look at the pre-1997/98 logo below.  Can you spot the differences between the original logo and the newest version?

Whether or not using the past as a security blanket message was the reasoning behind the Philadelphia 76ers’ logo change, I don’t know, but the timing is certainly great to take advantage of those messages of security and longing for better days when the team performed better and consumers’ lives were better.

Take a look at your brand.  Can you incorporate messages of longevity and security for the future into your marketing?  Or can you incorporate messages that refer to the nostalgia of the past?  Either is a good brand message choice in 2009.

Your thoughts?

By the way, The Brand New has a great overlay graphic of the new logo on top of the old one where you can see just how minimal the changes between the pre 1997/98 logo and the 2009 logo are.

Bad Logos

I have to give a hat tip to ArtistMike.com for putting together a great list of bad logos. 

It’s an amusing and unfortunate display of logo design gone terribly wrong, and the lessons to learn are these — hire a professional logo designer to create your logo and be sure to show it to many people before launching it to make sure there’s nothing you haven’t missed in terms of interpretation.

Check out the list of bad logos.

New Dollar General Logo – Why Bother?

I stopped by the Brand New blog today and learned that Dollar General has a new logo.  This one can be added to the why bother category.  Unless someone can help me understand.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Based on this post from BrandlandUSA, I think that perhaps Dollar General should have focused on updating other parts of its business before investing in a logo redesign.

Brand Challenge – Define Your Brand in One Sentence

Ask yourself this question:

• Can you explain your brand identity, meaning your brand position, purpose, promise and image, in one sentence? 

If you can, that’s great.  It means you have a clear definition of your current brand identity. 

If not, you need to take some time to define your brand so you can consistently communicate your brand message across all of your customer touch points.

Next, ask yourself these questions:

• If your one sentence brand identity was included on your marketing piece or business card and your company name were switched with another, would it matter? 
• Would your brand identity sentence work just as well on that other company’s materials or business cards as it does on yours? 

If it does, then that’s great. 

If it doesn’t, then you need to think about changing your brand strategy.  Your brand should be unique to your business or product.  No other company or product should be able to use your brand identity sentence.  If they can, then your brand is not differentiated enough from the myriad of other businesses and products on the market.

Take some time to think about your brand and its uniqueness and make any necessary changes now.  You’ll reap the rewards in the short and long term if you do.

Image: Flickr

The History of the Fuji Logo – Example of Well-Executed Logo Evolution

I often write about companies that recently revamped their logos, but today, I’m going to do something a bit different and track the evolution of a logo to see if the changes made to the corporate icon over the decades seems logical and well-executed.  I chose Fuji for the first logo history review, because the company provides a good example of doing things right.

Check out the evolution of the Fuji logo in pictures below:

The Fuji logo started in 1936 just as you’d expect.  Many logos in the first half of the twentieth century had a very simple, one-color design, and Fuji’s logo was not an exception to the norm.  In 1960, the company added a burst of much needed color, but kept the design simple. 

Things changed in 1980 when the logo icon many consumers still associate with Fuji today was created.  The iconic symbol stayed as an element of the logo for 26 years until the company left the dated, yet well-known, symbol behind and exchanged it with a more modern logo and typeface. 

I have to admit, I like the current logo.  It’s always hard for consumers to let go of a well-known logo that’s been around for a long time.  A strong logo is inherently connected with the brand, and consumers develop a sense of security with that logo.  However, Fuji made the bold decision to delete the archaic symbol.  In this case, the decision worked.

What do you think of the Fuji logo evolution?  Thumbs up or thumbs down? 

Images: Fujifilm.com

Over 1,000 Brands Per Day and Counting

In case anyone hasn’t seen it yet, I have to share Tanner Woodruff’s homework for a course in the Visual Communication Design program at Arizona State University.  He was asked to create a clock and retail or shipping packaging for that clock for the industry of his choice.  Tanner chose to create a clock for identity designers.  He logged all 1,035 brands he interacted with in a 24-hour period (at least as many as he could write down) then created a clock to represent those brand interactions.

It’s so interesting to see one person’s daily interaction with brands visually like this.  You can follow the link to view more pictures of Tanner’s brand clock and the packaging for the brand clock and to read about how he came to create it.

Hat tip to Brand New for this post topic.

Image: Tanner Woodruff

Evolution of the Game Show Network Logo

The Game Show Network has been around since 1997 and has struggled with its branding since day one.  Last month, the Game Show Network debuted a new logo, which has been getting mixed reviews.  Check out the evolution of the Game Show Network logo below.

What do you think?  I like the color palette, which makes the logo take on a nostalgic 70s feeling when game shows were at their peak of popularity.  I also like the use of squares that’s reminiscent of cklassic game shows like the Hollywood Squares or Tic-Tac-Dough.  However, I don’t like the classic black circles optical illusion effect that’s going on, and I don’t like how the tagline is laid out.  Why no space between “play” and “everyday”?  I know I’m anal, but that really bothers me.  Overall, I don’t think the logo is terrible, but I’m surprised that’s the best the Game Show Network could come up with.

However, with all that said, I do like how the logo is animated on the Game Show Network website (take a look – the squares move around like a puzzle but only for a few seconds when you first visit a page within the site).  That’s clever and fun.

Your thoughts?

Image: The Game Show Network via Wikipedia.org