Involvement, via Clearoute Inc: positioning, naming, logo, identity

Creative Strategy
Turning into the skid of fans and sports writers for year already referring to Dwayne De Rosario as “DeRo/De Ro,” his name was shortened to the less complicated “Dero” with the common soccer team name “United” added to suggest the loyalty his fans have shown during his career.

For the logo, the “D” representing the white hexagons and the “U” representing the black pentagons of a typical soccer ball.

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You can get a very good bottle of wine for less than that, and not only can their new size, the Trenta, hold every last drop of it, Starbucks can now sell you the wine. And why stop there? You can rinse out your Tall in the washroom and fill it with a bottle of Starbucks beer. Or use your empty Venti to maybe hold a pint.

This isn’t happening at all locations. It’s being rolled out in select stores in the US and Spain, announced January 24, 2012. The idea first showed up in 2009 in Seattle, where they remodeled a few Starbucks and called at least one of them “15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.”

The hardest thing to do in branding is to own a category. You want your company name or product on the left of an equals sign, and the category on the right.

Starbucks = coffee

Well, at least it used to.

In 2011, HP gave us the demo version of how not to run a company. So when they commissioned Moving Brands to rebrand the company with a new logo and identity package, the project was probably doomed from the getgo. It’s a compelling design, but to launch it in the midst of such disarray would only make the company appear to be scrambling.

Sure, it looks a bit like it’s flipping the bird, but I don’t think it was ever going to fly at this period in HP’s history. They’d be better to move towards it in the next few years.

This is the hands-down worst logo (the top one) ever designed and used, of any company worth over $100 million. The name RE/MAX is derived from “real estate maximum” and is one of the most successful franchises on the planet. 63 countries, 6 continents, 100,000 sales associates, 6900 offices. It’s huge. It’s everywhere. Let’s look at it more closely:

DESIGN
This is one of those “my nephew just started highschool but he’s a really good artist” kinda deals. The slash is unnecessary and the demand for RE/MAX to be written in uppercase makes it even more grotesque. This is a case of years of numbing familiarity. But look at it with a new eye. I’m placing all my cards face up on the table and claiming that there is no hidden FedEx-style arrow. No secret, witty meaning or form within. Just lousy design produced at a moment when it just didn’t really matter. Kudos, however, for not changing is as many times as Gateway or a southern-based NHL team.

KERNING
At the time of this logo’s cesarean, tight kerning was the norm. The “RE” combination then is perfect. A slight ligature at the bottom of the “R” connecting the “E” is dead on. The “MA” combination is far too tight in relation to the “AX,” however, as straight-to-straights should be the furthest spaced combos. And the “EM” is a crapshoot, and the little bit of “E” after the slash is just awkward and sloppy.

LETTERFORMS
Essentially, it’s the more evil characters in the Avant Garde font family, and the design is true to the sorts of wordmark designs produced using these Avant Garde special cuts. Like how a certain German Leader (name withheld because I don’t want those search hits) wrecked that small mustache for despots everywhere, RE/MAX shelved Avant Garde for designers for all time.

RATIONALE
There isn’t any. Can’t be.

RE/MAX RE/DESIGN
So, how do you reanimate such a beast, without losing the obvious familiarity that’s kept it alive this long? Above, I opened up the kerning to a more contemporary spacing, ditched the whack Avant Garde characters, and repurposed the slash. Not as much…(zing?)…as the original, but perhaps easier to work with, and it refocuses the name, which is still great.

You know that 54 page brand guide you got from HP attached in an angry email that one time? Ya, what was that for again?

Social network logos are a new breed of brand identity. By their very ubiquity, and utility, there can be no rules that guide their usage. Even highly-skilled graphic designers and agencies producing websites for multi-million dollar corporations are using Google’s image search rather than consulting online brand guidelines.

Easy, right? Design a simple logo with minimal line, maybe some bright primary colors, and place in the upper left corner of the website, or bottom right of an ad. Who needs words or letters when it’s this perfect?

Just don’t forget about the decades of business success, word-of-mouth endorsement, AND/OR millions AND/OR billions of dollars in PR, marketing, and advertising.

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”
- William Shakespeare