Branding and Rebranding

As an advertiser and/or marketer, branding is where it all begins. And all brands start with a logo. Logo design is a skill set all in itself. There are plenty of agencies in the US that only do branding work. It is quite a fascinating art form.

Smashing Apps put out an interesting post the other day which directly relates to branding. It is titled “33 Exceptional Logo Rebranding In 2008 For Your Inspiration.” Now, despite the title making no sense, the post does highlight some interesting rebranding choices. Some I love, some I hate. You can read the post here.

Of the ones I favor; WNYC, Cisco and Thomson Reuters top my list. All three of them are simple, easy to recognize and clean. My least favorite rebranding efforts in this list are; HP (looks like they got all caught up in the “make it glossier” phase that is going around), Capital One (what is with shaded red swoosh?), and Animal Planet (are they a kids channel now?). All these three logos tend to ‘try too hard’ with their brand identity.

One of the worst things you can do with a logo redesign project is try to say everything about what the company does with one iconic mark. It gets too complicated, too difficult to recognize and often way over-styled.

Check out the post and leave me your comments… I would love to hear what you think of this collection. Enjoy.