Our task in groups is to create a rebranded typographical logo for a company which sponsored Leeds United football club. We had few restrictions, one being it had to be typographical, we could change the name of the company and colours and almost all aspects of it, as long as we could justify it. We also had the choice of five typefaces which were Bodoni, Helvetica, Times Roman, Century and Futura. The group I was situated in was given the company 'Coral', a gambling enterprise comprised of bookmakers, casinos and now online betting and gaming. We had to research into type, rebranding of companies in the past (successful and failures) and the company we had the job of rebranding for.
Type -
We had the restriction of using one of five typefaces, this was due to us looking at some work by Massimo Vignelli, an Italian designer who was once quoted saying 'Out of thousands of typeface, all we need are a few basic ones, and trash the rest' Vignelli was refering to Bodoni, Helvetica, Times Roman, Century and Futura. I chose to look into Helvetica and Futura in my group looking into the back ground of these two typefaces.
Helvetica - A sans seriff typeface developed by swiss designer by Max Miedinger in 1957. It is a very simplistic typeface, with multiple purposes and a design that works well in any context. It is still as relevant today as it ever has been.
Futura - A sans seriff typeface developed in 1927, a very contempary design for the times, a typeface I feel is very ahead of its time, and another that is still very relevant in modern culture, hugely in the cinematic world.
Rebranding -
I looked into a number of different rebrands of companies which have been successful and also some which have been unsuccessful. I began by looking at companies whose rebranding failed and was met with negative feedback from the public.
Gap - In 2010, without warning Gap launched a brand new logo and totally rebranded there look to suit it. This was a huge and expensive strategy to boost sales which saw them scrap there original logo which had been the face of the company for 20 years. The rebrand was estimated to have cost Gap $100 million and people soon took to the internet to show there dislike of the new design, and very little positivity was seen in the feedback. Just six days after the new logo went public, Gap did a massive turnaround and brought back there old logo and design.
Pepsi - Having changed there logo many times throughout the companies history, a rebranding of Cola giants Pepsi wasn't a surprise. Going for its original red and blue circle but this time round it being split by a smile shape and a new type face, which even its own designer did not like. This rebranding is reported to have cost $1.2 billion dollars over three years with the logo costing $1 million.
MasterCard - In 2006 MasterCard attempted to bring in a new logo design which was met with a lot of negative feedback from customers. The people who were asked about the new logo said that they were not opposed to a new logo but thought that this one was really bad in comparison to the old one. Having been such a well recognised logo throughout the world MasterCard reverted to its original shortly after.
Having seen what not to do I moved onto some more well received and popular rebranding.
Burberry - The 156 year old fashion company was seen by many as gang wear or rough, but throughout the 2000's the company has had a complete image change due to clever advertising and rebranding. The company used high class celebrities such as actress Emma Watson and Model Kate Moss to show what sort of standard there clothes were and to prove its elegance and class in the modern day while still keeping its heritage. After this change Burberry saw a huge increase in sales and a huge expansion across the globe.
Old Spice - The fragrance company who started out over 70 years ago were in danger of becoming just a forgotten smell went through a massive image change in 2011 with the help of ex NFL player Isaiah Mustafa on board for its advertising strategy to promote a fresh sleek look and give Old Spice its class back, adopting the slogans such as 'Smell like a man, man' and 'Im on a horse'. These new adverts gained huge online attention and went viral in a matter on days. The rejuvenated brand then got well loved movie star Terry Crews to star in more adverts which again had a great response from the internet and a further rise in sales bringing Old Spice well and truly back.Task -
We approached the task firstly by looking at the background of the company and I found that it was established as betting pitches at race courses in 1926 by Joe Coral, it opened its its first licensed betting office in 1961 but in them days gambling was unglamorous so the shops were very dull and unattractive. In the seventies the company diversified into leisure activities such as social clubs, casinos, hotels and later holiday camps. After this rise the mega company Bass bought out Coral, and this saw a huge rise in the number of betting shops for the company which then lead to a huge money merger with Gala and the rise continued.
I looked at a few of Corals rival betting companies logos including its own, to get an idea of what the general feel of betting company logos were. I saw that they all followed similar styles all following a similar size and all majorly type with only a few adopting image or symbol in the logo.
I moved onto looking at logos which used Helvetica and Futura. I found the Cassina logo, a high end Italian Manufacturing Company whose logo consists of just simple white Helvetica type on a red background. Such a simple design but so strong and bold, very clear and crisp to its audience. I then looked at Futura, which had not really been used on logo design but in recent years been a popular choice in movie posters, such as Wes Anderson which I looked at in the typographical lecture. Its such a classic type yet feels so modern which is why it works so well.Having looked at these different aspects the group spoke about what sort of design we wanted and we decided to keep the blue or a similar blue from the original logo and decided to each give it a go individually and comeback together to see how are styles and interpretations can be merged to form the best logo possible. I began by mocking up some ideas and layouts of the words working with kerning to spread the words out and also tightening the word close together.
I wanted to use the history of the company to influence my experimentation to create a design which payed homage to how it started in 1926 but also be modern enough to still feel relevant and classy.
As a group we looked at how else we could interpret it through colour and even considered using the colour coral but it came clear it was to feminine to be used as a bookmakers colour and would put off the target audience which was primarily males. We decided that the blue from the original logo or a blue similar would work better. I went for a lighter colour which is a blue that is usually representative of the sea or water which I felt Coral related to a lot.
The group came together again with the new ideas we had established, we then took aspects from one and others work that we liked, going for the Futura typeface as it felt most appropriate through the link of the history of the company Coral and that Futura came about at the same time, it also felt the most relevant to us as we felt it gave class while also feel relevant, it looked to us that it was a sporting event style type. We also decided to use the colour blue as it was most relevant not through it being the colour of the last logo but we also made the links to the leeds united colours, which are white, blue and yellow. With this in mind and all our ideas combined this design below is where we found ourselves.
A very retro feel design that also gives a certain class to the bookmakers. The blue and yellow colours are representative of Leeds united whom coral sponsor. We all felt this design had a feel of a sports event or was sports related, through the use of layout, type size and lines. A few differentiations of the design were mocked up to be used for different aspects of the company.
We also considered the way people bet in the modern age through the web and through Apps on mobile phones. We thought we would interpret this to get a feel for how our logo would fair on technology.
I feel this logo is successful and clear. It goes back to the companies beginnings while also having a classy modern feel about it.
We were given some feedback from our peers on our design process and presentation of our work:
- "Flowed well, good presentation, not too much writing"
- "Lots of research. Very visual Presentation. Lots of experimentation. Good application."
- "Research well done. Visual. Colour choice well justified. Colours make it stand out"
- "Good research into how the company had changed and progressed, followed by ideas to relevantly communicate the new logo."
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