TV You Can’t Ignore – And an Awful Logo to Boot
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
Chicago’s WGN, one of the venerable “superstations” left over from their mid-80’s heyday on cable television, has recently rebranded, with design work done in-house (with direction by Tribune’s Lee Abrams - and apparently inspired by Pink Floyd). Gone is the “Superstation WGN” moniker, replaced now by “WGN America - TV You Can’t Ignore”.
The name change and the tag line are fine, but the new logo? Ugh. Perhaps the outdated, 80’s/90’s feel of the branding was intentional, given that the bulk of their programming is syndicated reruns from those decades?
Fittingly, I suppose, the official WGN website still looks like it was designed in FrontPage in the late 90’s, and no one’s bothered replacing the Sun Microsystems favicon with a WGN favicon. Sloppy.
(via Brand New)
Garmin Unveils Nüvifone, First Real Competitor to the iPhone?
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
When we say “first real competitor to the iPhone”, we aren’t alleging there are not better selling mobile phones than Apple’s iPhone (though selling more than 22,000 smart phones per day isn’t too shoddy). No, we’re speaking of UI; user interface design. Even many of those aren’t particular fans of Apple’s mobile device acknowledge the idea that many of the UI innovations introduced in the iPhone will begin making their way into other mobile phones in the coming months and years.
Verizon has marketed LG’s Voyager as very much the iPhone-style, touch screen-driven device, but the Voyager’s touch functionality is significantly limited and isn’t even the primary interface for the phone’s OS.
Garmin, however, producers of some of the best-selling hand-held GPS devices, is now entering the smartphone market later this year with the Nüvifone, and based some of the initial available screenshots, it may be the first competing smartphone to really give the iPhone a run for its money.
Electronista highlights just how the phone’s GPS core will integrate with its smartphone functionality:
Almost entirely controlled by a 3.5-inch touchscreen interface, the device centers around its native GPS unit: in addition to straightforward navigation, a host of Google apps allow it to search for local businesses, check traffic, and view nearby weather. Any photos or videos taken with the built-in camera are automatically geotagged for positioning in location-based services.
Of course, we’ve yet to see a working model of the Nüvi. As noted by John Gruber, the only “screenshots” we’ve seen thus far are entirely mocked up vector art; they are currently no legitimate screengrabs available. So who knows where this announcement falls on the vaporware scale, but assuming it does make its way to market at some point this year, Garmin may well have a hit on their hands.
Obey Obama
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Shepard Fairey, he of the ubiquitous Obey art installations, stickers, clothing and more, has produced a pair of limited edition posters supporting Barack Obama’s candidacy for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Fairey, in his own words:
I believe with great conviction that Barack Obama should be the next President. I have been paying close attention to him since the Democratic convention in 2004. I feel that he is more a statesman than a politician. He was against the war when it was an unpopular position (and Hillary was for the war at that time), Obama is for energy and environmental conservation. He is for healthcare reform. Check him out for yourself www.barackobama.com. Proceeds from this print go to produce prints for a large statewide poster campaign.
The “Hope” design (shown to the right) is being apparently being utilized by the Obama camp as a part of an awareness campaign; the second design, “Progress“, was released by Fairey today for sale (limited to 250 pieces) and sold out almost immediately.
(via Creative Review)
Good Campaign Logo Design
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
Speak Up has an excellent recent post discussing the logo for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and its exceptional expansion across various sub-brands and other implementations. As derivative as most major campaign logos often are, it’s refreshing to see such a contemporary and well thought-out approach to a candidate’s brand. Check out the piece here.
(via Coudal)
So Exactly What Kind of Tagline Does $250,000 Buy You These Days?
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
The Times of London reports on the rather mixed reaction to newly revealed official slogan of Scotland. After more than six months, and £125,000 (approx. $250,000), the Scottish National Party revealed the new marketing slogan:
“Welcome to Scotland.”
“It feels governmental, corporate and static,” said Anita Califano a senior consultant with Wolff Olins.
Of course, one has to be wary of criticism leveled by anyone at Wolff Olins. After all, they’re the agency responsible for the mind-numbing branding of the 2012 London Olympics.
It Was Just Inspiration, Right?
Friday, April 27th, 2007
As broadband Internet access, in the form of DSL, Cable, WiMax, etc., continues to proliferate, former 800-pound gorilla AOL is struggling to define itself and its identity in the 21st century Internet. Their solution? Copy Yahoo!
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, among others, is reporting on the striking similarities between the new Beta version of AOL’s web portal and Yahoo!’s homepage. For all intents and purposes, the two are one and the same. The new AOL layout, first introduced by AOL Senior Product Manager Frank Gruber, is apparently even referred to by many at AOL as “the Yahoo portal.”
Now, granted, there are only so many ways in which to organize and present essentially the same basic mix of news, entertainment, sports and weather into a single-page portal format, and websites and companies are constantly “borrowing” design elements, features and the like from one another, but there’s a difference between being inspired by another and simply ripping them off.
Rebranding Government
Monday, March 12th, 2007
King County unveiled their proposed rebranding yesterday, moving away from the longstanding crown logo and electing to honor Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will an eye-catching, b/w design.
The Seattle P-I has the full rundown here »
The 2012 London Olympics Rebrand: What the Hell Happened?
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
The web has been abuzz this week since the announcement of the newly redesigned logo
and branding campaign for the 2012 London Olympics. Granted, the initial logo design utilized by the London Olympic committee, used during the process of bidding on the games, was a bit conservative and understated, but the new look (see below) goes 180 degrees in the wrong direction.
The Valve has dug up probably the best critique/one-liner of the new design, courtesy of a message board post:
“It looks,” says one of these latter message posters (called ‘NewLogoHater’, which is either a fantastically serendipitous surname or else an alias), “as if the 80s has thrown up into 2012.”
I couldn’t have said it better. Judge for yourself:
Old Logo
New Logo
