Thursday 24 May 2012

Brought To You Today By The Letter M

There is something about a well designed logo that cannot be beat. You have your classics like Fedex and Nike which are simple but eye catching and now you have your icons for things like Facebook, Twitter etc which can also been seen as a logo of sorts.

Time magazine detailed the new branding for the Minnesota Zoo back in the early 80's and I loved its simple accessible design. It had a great childlike quality and looked like something straight out of Sesame Street. I found some of the original pictures the other day on a Logo website which examined the original rebrand compared with how it looks today.












It looks perfect for a zoo and is really engaging. Compare those above to the current identity:





I wish they had just revamped the old design as the new one is just trying to be too clever. The old design was a lot more iconic and didn't need any other words to give the zoo its identity. I loved the old wayfinding icons as well which were fun but easily distinctive. The problem today is that in an increasingly competitive market, companies are becoming obsessed with rebranding themselves every few years. There is an old saying, its a bit of a cliche but its true. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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