Logo math

Another Earth = another minimalist logo

I love the simplicity of this movie’s wordmark. Just one little trick with the O, and the name and the mark work together to convey a single meaning. Nothing too fancy and not overly clever—not trying too hard.

You’ve probably received those email forwards about “awesome minimalist logo designs” [1, 2, 3], but often they feel to me as if they’ve been backed into, little more than rebus puzzles with a “TM” added to imply that someone’s using them as logos. They’re like solutions waiting for a problem—like someone came up with an ad and then waited for a client to sell it to (yes, I am still beating that dead horse). And maybe part of the reason I find it hard to believe that those are “real” logos is that most brand managers and business owners aren’t interested in logos that are riddles. And they’re right not to be.

So it’s refreshing to see something like this elegantly executed and easy to interpret. Is there a second, deeper meaning to the logo? Maybe (I haven’t seen the movie or read much about). There’s an air of mystery in the ads and the name. The logo, despite its simplicity (or because of it?), makes it all even more intriguing. Like good brand design should, it makes me curious to learn more—not just smile and say “oh, I get it!”

Comedy Central’s brand strategy is no joke

[This post was originally published on FutureBrand's FBlog.]

Once upon a time, before the likes of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry roamed (infested?) our airwaves, a startup television channel named MTV used to play music videos. And not just from 3 AM to 8 AM, as seems to be the case today. A look at MTV’s current programming schedule shows just how much has changed since “Video Killed the Radio Star.” While the focus on teenage viewers is abundantly clear—with shows like “When I was 17,” “16 and Pregnant,” and “That 70s Show”—there are few clues for unfamiliar viewers as to exactly what that big “M” stands for. In fact, MTV officially dropped the line “Music Television” from their logo last year.

I offer this MTV parable only as counter-example to

continue reading…

Better late than never: Happy Chinese New Year

Shin, one of our designers at Labbrand, designed our CNY card for the year of the rabbit. Click on the image to see a full-size version. 新年快乐！

Final top brand story from China in 2010: Shanghai VIVE’s revival

This is the final story in a series of posts about 2010’s top five brand stories in China. This is one of my favorites—I think the revival of some of these old Shanghai and Chinese brands has a lot of growth potential over the next 5 years, and it’s really fun to watch.

My next post will summarize all the stories and the trends they represent. A complete version of this article is available in last December’s issue of Labbrand’s LABReport.

Shuang Mei (双妹) Returns as Shanghai VIVE

What Happened

State-owned Shanghai Jahwa Group is China’s largest cosmetics company and owner of Herborist, a natural-ingredient cosmetics line that has recently exported products to Europe and the USA. This past summer, the group re-launched one of its own iconic legacy brands, previously known as Shuang Mei (双妹). The brand has a new name, Shanghai VIVE, but everything else about it looks old, nostalgic, retro.

continue reading…

Five silly reasons to hate Starbucks’ new logo

1. It’s different.
You’d think this kind of knee-jerk reaction would be limited to amateurs, but even Laura Ries writes, “when it comes to branding, the best kind of change is usually no change at all.” Really? Companies change, market conditions change, competition changes, consumers and their preferences change. The world changes. But logos shouldn’t?

2. They got rid of “Starbucks.”
CoreBrand contends that “dropping the Starbucks name from their logo will only serve to confuse consumers who are not as familiar with the company” (posted on Branding Strategy Insider). Seriously? Starbucks has 16,000 stores. Nike, Apple, McDonald’s and others have dropped their names, and seem to be ok.

Besides, this will aid the company’s global expansion efforts by focusing on a universal design rather than a language-specific name. “Starbucks,” or a localized name like “星巴克,” can still be printed nearby, like on the opposite side of the cup.

continue reading…