“Never judge a book by its cover”, they say. But we’re sure that ‘they’ would have never come to Wall Street. In the world of business, the looks of a book are just as important as the innards. A company is known by the ‘brand’ it forms, the logo it lugs, and the values it hones. And what a company does is just as important as how it does it, and with how much panache it carries it out.
Many executives generally tend to turn a blind eye towards how important a company’s ‘brand’ is. But they’re the ones who probably have no clue about what a brand’s name and value can do! Don’t believe me? For instance, buying a flower for as much as $18? There’s something that a brand-value has to offer that people get lured towards it. And it is exactly what makes people value them.
So here’s a quick look at how some companies have and are changing their faces, and in continuation, their face-values by giving their faces (read as: logos) whole new looks.
But before you move on to read this further, there’s a slight disclaimer we’d like to pose in front of you. Having said that logos are the most important factor in redefining brands, it is yet to be made certain to you that it is a risky business. Stepping into the waters with the entire world’s eyes upon you isn’t an easy job. And if you slip up, the paparazzi wouldn’t let you off the hook.
1. Airbnb
You must have heard of the famous travel house-renting service Airbnb, but you might not fondly remember its un-famed blue and white (almost italics) and whacky logo. Nevertheless, you must sure as hell remember the cherry-red and white design scheme they’ve used on all their logo and marketing platforms.
Airbnb is a typical example of how well a company can update their image in the world, by just changing their logo. They switched from the whacky font to the ‘Belo’ that they’ve very officially and stupendously marketed throughout the world, stating that it represents the coalesce of “people, places, and love”. And just after their tremendous rebranding stint, there seemed to be a sudden influx of Airbnb’s everywhere.
2. G A P
Did you see the spaces we gave between each letter of the word GAP? It is because we’ve known this clothing brand for years, and the very first thing that comes to our minds when we hear the name, is the literal gap between the alphabet letters in the logo. We’ve seen the ‘G’, the ‘A’, and the ‘P’ separated by enough spaces for even the most naïve of people to realize its meaning.
But just recently, they’ve redesigned their logo with a more filled-in “Gap”, both literally and figuratively. The former blue box tying the alphabets together has been moved to one side, and it seems as if there’s no gap in the gap anymore.
We’ve established this well and good, that companies use logos to revamp their images in the world of business, but sometimes, the newer logos just don’t seem to work as well as the original ones.
3. Starbucks
This one is another branding cliché. There’s no doubt that anyone who comes across the term “Starbucks” thinks about the Green Mermaid. But this mermaid wasn’t always green.
Black is the color which has been quite apparent in the brand’s image. But experts suggest that adding the color black to a beverage totally takes away the warmth and the aroma that it tries to portray. So, the brand just recently shifted to an all-green-and-white mermaid!
The brand’s identity has been less about the coffee it sells, and more about what experience it offers. The new logo, with the revamped design patterns to their menus and website—giving a grey-ishtinge to the website and design—wonderfully portrays the essence of a good café, the warmth of a hot beverage (or maybe the chill of a cold cappuccino), and the ideology of the brand.
4. Adidas
One thing that companies, especially designers need to remember is that not all rebranding is ‘good’ rebranding. You might wish to play this one wisely. Some other exceptionally famous rebranding tactics, that took the logos afar, and the company’s stocks even farther, include the exceptional changes the famous sports-wear company Adidas has been going with; this is one company that has gained more attention due to rebranding, than due to its products. I still remember the original logo that had a football shoe hanging between the verticals of the two d’s in the word ‘Adidas’. Then came the tulip, with three horizontal strips running between it. Since that still didn’t sate the company’s eyes enough, the designers had to come up with the three slanted bars, also known as the famous hill-top design, which the company used for quite some time.
But, as it turns out, another revamp was in the process. The company now proudly holds the infamous three strips, and just plain lowercase font, that reads in big letters, ‘Adidas’.
Revamping a company’s brand is supposedly one of the most difficult tasks, and thanks to the amazing logo design ideas from around the globe, with changing color schemes, patterns, ideas, and what not, logo-changes always seems like an alluring field.
