Desain Logo dan Identitas Terbaik dan Terburuk 2009, MSN dan Bing terburuk
2009 has been a great year for Brand New, with a bottomless sourceof new and redesigned identities from around the world, and we've allhad good fun critiquing them in sickness and in health. But it allcomes down to this: The Best and Worst. I have gone through all thearchives and selected the top 12 in each category. There were somedead-ringers for each category and some that required a little moreself-deliberation acknowledging that some identities were left off thelist. And just as well, I know my selections may incite somedisagreements, which are more than welcome as we bring this year to aclose. Each identity comes with some basic details like release dateand design credits, highlights from our polls for those identities thatcame after July when we introduced the feature, and I have selected oneor two reader comments to accompany a brief summary from me. Enjoy!Brand New will take a break for the rest of the year, we may post oneor two things, but set your expectations low for this Holiday season.
Yale University Press
Designed by: Matthew Carter (Yale Typeface)
Release Date: September, 2009
Voting Highlight: 12% (152 of 1,194) Hate Paul Rand's logo
To be perfectly fair, there is nothing formally wrong with the newlogo, as it's simply the word Yale typeset in the masterful work ofMatthew Carter. But it is definitely sad to see one of Paul Rand's mostrecognizable logos go away.
While it's sad to see Rand's logo go, I'm glad they ditched it entirely rather than try to update his logo.
— G*
Brandingthe Press with the same identity as the university pushes the notionthat all of these titles are in some way tied to the academicinstitution. It blurs the line and creates an assumption for customersthat isn't necessarily true.
— Jeff Stevens
LendingTree
Designed by: Mullen
Release Date: July 2009
Voting Highlight: 87% (605 of 694) Voted it a Futuristic and Trendy logo
The old logo wasn't much to get excited about but if fit the serviceand the audience, while the new one is awfully misguided toTerminators. Nice TV ads though.
If you hadn't told me this was a 2009 redesign, I'd havepegged this for an 1998 "cutting edge” logo designed by a firm that wasdoing a lot of tech work at the time.
— Rachel Cary
Hilton Worldwide
Designed by: Landor
Release Date: September, 2009
Voting Highlight: 62% (795 of 1,274) Thought the Icon was Better without Bevels
This could have been a solid corporate redesign, but then they hadto go mess it up by adding unnecessary bevels, and all the elements area little too disparately placed, sized and aligned.
There is no logic to the light source "shining” on thebevels. Upper right? Upper left? The reflections on the bevels seemarbitrary. With a consistent light source, the left edges of the topand bottom elements would appear to line up properly.
— Griche
Why do so many wannabe upscale brands have such bad taste?
— couchidea
Art Directors Club
Designed by: Trollbäck + Company
Release Date: November, 2009
Voting Highlight: 73% (895 of 1,226) Voted it A Step Backward
Everyone pretty much agreed: Been there, done that. For anorganization catering to the creative industry this was neithercreative nor, um, industrious. And the follow-up showing the logo in action didn't help much.
Yes, the previous logo spoke to the history of ADC, ratherthan it's future, but I don't think this is all that progressiveeither. It smacks of 2002.
— Denny
I'm normally willing tohave an open mind about the new logos presented here on Brand New, andif I can't say something nice, I don't say anything at all. But thislogo makes me wonder why the rest of us are busting our asses trying tocraft logos with meaning and depth while this kind of thing is beingperpetrated.
— Drew Davies
Burnley
Designed by: N/A
Release Date: October, 2009
Voting Highlight: 70% (835 of 1,178) said Wow... with Sarcasm
I was actually surprised at some of the positive comments for thisone, which I still think is a sorry excuse of a logo. My cat has turnedout hairballs with better execution and strategy than that. Alsonoteworthy: some clients competed for the privilege of using this logo.
At first glance, I thought it was really cool. On second glance, it's REALLY cool. Burnley +1, cognoscenti fail!
— Marcello
Iknow this isn't a popular opinion, but I absolutely love it. Why nottry something different? Why not try to use this object and animationto represent the interconnectedness of the community? This Burnleyobject as logo is different from the boring shit and aestheticnightmares we've been seeing lately. In my opinion, this is a win.
— Matt
Wisconsin Department of Tourism
Designed by: Red Brown Klé
Release Date: March, 2009
Poor choices in color and typography and even poorer decisions inconfiguration and scale make this one of the strangest logos of theyear. Live like you mean it, but design like you mean it too.
I don't like the type, the slogan, or the dude doing thehandstand. It's all just so corny... and it actually makes me never,ever, ever want to go to Wisconsin.
— TheMaster
Kraft Foods
Designed by: N/A
Release Date: February, 2009
While the well-known "race track” Kraft logo will remain on consumerproduct packaging, the parent company decided that it was too cool forthem and instead opted for a crappy carnival of typefaces and randomshapes.
1 swoosh, 1 capitalized word, 2 fonts, 3 weights, 4 lower-case words, and 9 colors for 1 LOGO.
— Sean
Smilesare an apparently irresistible contemporary "me too” brand identitytrend. Although there is an attempt at a flower, the combination ispoorly executed and just looks naive. The missed opportunity for sometasty type is further confirmation that the identity was in the handsof novices.
— Andrew Sabatier
Kraft Foods, Redux
Designed by: N/A
Release Date: July, 2009
Only five months later Kraft Foods unveiled a revised logo that wassupposed to be an improvement. You know the expression "Puttinglipstick on a pig”? This is like switching the lipstick from the pig'smouth to the pig's you-know-what.
I disagree, I think when comparing the two logos side byside, there is a difference for the better with the new icon. There isan improvement. And this new and fairly recent logo will NOT change aconsumer's opinion of the brand. Taste and price will.
— Peter O'Connell
City of Philadelphia
Designed by: The Star Group
Release Date: December, 2009
Voting Highlight: 60% (942 of 1,547) deemed it cliché
One thing you don't want to do is upset Philadelphians — and judgingby the amount of traffic we got to this story, there were many — bybranding them with a web font (Trebuchet) and a terribly renderedLiberty Bell
As a Philadelphian it is surprising that most people evenin the city gravitate towards the bell when approaching a brandingproject. Rarely in my life when mentioning that I am from Philadelphiahas anyone said "oooh, have you seen the Liberty Bell?!” The questionis usually "what's your favorite cheese steak place?”
— Chad Kaufman
Xe
Designed by: N/A
Release Date: May, 2009
Step 1 in the Bad Corporation Protection Program: Rename thecorporation. Step 2: Redesign the logo. Step 3: Hope that people forgetabout your old brand in a couple of years. Oh, and regarding the logo,I have no idea what is going on.
Here's another company that I wouldn't design for, and Iwon't critique the logo or marketing strategy on the off-chance suchcomments might be even a little helpful to them.
— BJN
MSN
Designed by: N/A
Release Date: November, 2009
Voting Highlight: 15% (165 of 1,073) thought the butterfly was great
The butterfly icon might get a passing grade, if I were extragenerous, but the typography is simply ridiculous. I stand by myoriginal quote, that I will also use as a segue to the very worst of2009, "[The typography] suffers from Bing syndrome: It wants to be cooland modern but it suffers from complete lack of typographic decency.(This post is also worth revisiting if you want to read a pissing matchbetween Futurebrand designers claiming credit for the originalbutterfly in the comments).
Why do designers think that they can improve an existingtypeface by cutting pieces off, adding arbitrary bits to it orgenerally messing with details? Would you walk better if you cut yourtoes off? If a typeface doesn't work for a specific word, look foranother one that does, There are more than 100k fonts out there, mostof them carefully made and in themselves perfect.
— Erik Spiekermann
Bing
Designed by: Razorfish
Release Date: June, 2009
When I first posted the new logo for Microsoft's search engine Iblasted it for using scaled typography then "Bob,” who designed thelogo at Razorfish, informed us that "All the letter forms were madefrom scratch.” I think I preferred to think this nastiness was doneunknowingly than fully premeditated. Congratulations, Bing!
If that is true, it is sad. Couldn't you hire someone whocan actually design type? It wouldn't take more than an hour to do. Itwould still be a boring logo, but at least it wouldn't look like a freefont drawn by a 15-year old in Corel Draw, in 1987. It was made fromscratch and it still looks like scratch.
— Erik Spiekermann
Seriously,you people need to chill. While this logo is definitely not excellent,it's also nowhere near as bad as some of you are suggesting. Get offyour high horses and quit being such snobs. And you wonder whydesigners are perceived as such pompous a**holes.
— Anonymous
My Little Pony
Designed by: N/A
Release Date: Summer, 2009
Voting Highlight: 4% (43 of 921) thought this was bad
I am sure many of you will think I am crazy for including My Little Pony here and, in all honesty, there weremore technically impressive and stylistically appealing logos in 2009.Yet context plays a large role in identity design and within the marketand audience that My Little Pony resides in, this was a superb updatethat could have turned out real ugly, real fast.
Seriously?
—JonSel
Meredith Corporation
Designed by: Lippincott
Release Date: August, 2009
Voting Highlight: 2% (12 of 1,105) Voted on the new icon being Boring
A lively, colorful and bold update for a women-focused mediaenterprise, devoid of female clichés like the color pink or scripttypography. Thank you Lippincott!
Absolutely beautiful. I wish I had done this.
— Bill Dawson (XK9)
Ihate to be the bitch here, but I think the symbol is predictable. Takethe first letter of company name, rotate and repeat multiple times,until you make a floret. Then add rationale expounding said companiesmultidisciplinary nature. I agree it is pretty, but its looks are onlyskin-deep.
— Aditya
Commerzbank
Designed by: Meta Design
Release Date: November, 2009
Voting Highlight: 71% (602 of 840) Agreed this took the best from both worlds
The fact that the angle of the "K” matches the angle of the icon isreason enough to land this logo in the Best category, but everythingabout it is so carefully thought out and executed that there was no wayI was leaving this out, even if it had its detractors.
The logo gives me feelings of danger, hazard, a warningsign, discomfort... Using yellow as your main color only makes thingsworse.
— Erwin
I am not a fan of the sharp edges with such afree-flowing "ribbon” type shape. Not only is it not accurate as to howthe shape would actually flow in 3-D, but the mixture of curves insidethe shape and sharp edges outside is totally un-harmonious!
— Danae
El Banco Deuno
Designed by: Saffron
Release Date: January, 2009
I was one of the lone champions of this identity and I may havedoubted myself at the time, but going back through the archives, thisMexican's bank identity stood out from most of the entries.
I don't get it. It's just poofy letters.
— David H
Somethingelse I'd like to add is the fact that I wouldn't trust my money with abank that looks like that. I like banks to look, well, bank-like.Professional. A sense of class. I don't believe this communicates that.
— Neil
Guitar Hero
Designed by: Pentagram
Release Date: September, 2009
Voting Highlight: 55% (519 of 930) Voted this as Rockin'
While some mourned the loss of the unrefined (hence more genuine)look of the original logo, the new identity is more fitting of thebillion-dollar enterprise it represents. And, a spike more or a spikeless, it still rocks.
This update retains the old-school rock flavour, but justcleans it up a little bit, giving it a more professional feel andreflects its now mainstream status.
— Chris Thorpe
Yes theold logo was a bit off kilter, but that lent an air of hand renderedtattoo look to the logo that I thought was very appropriate. I'm notusually a fan of outlined text in logos either, but in this case, thenon outlined redesign looks flat and boring. It's computer renderedperfection actually makes some details annoying to me...
— Nathan McKinney
Syfy
Designed by: Proud Creative
Release Date: March, 2009
The name change got everyone in a tizzy but by now and even more somoving forward, it's not even an issue. And it sadly obscured whatturned out to be a solid redesign.
I dig the new mark — liked it from the start. I'm glad theylost the clumsy icon and type and went with a concept that was more"out there.”
— grubeedo
No matter how interesting and slickthe type treatments are, the actual word "Syfy” is so awkward I don'tthink I'll ever be fully on board. Love the new visuals, though.
— Enna
MyFonts
Designed by: UnderWare
Release Date: January, 2009
Their previous logo didn't set the bar too high, but the new customlettering did, not just for them, but for the whole retail typeindustry. Some people hated that the "My” made a hand... Well, you cantalk to it because the face ain't listenin'.
The MyFonts redesign was long overdue and a definite improvement.
— Darrel
Not sure if the cryptic hand was necessary, but we could all use more surprises in life I guess.
— Nate
Pfizer
Designed by: Siegel+Gale
Release Date: November, 2009
Voting Highlight: 62% (910 of 1,457) Considered the Logo Evolution an Improvement
The changes to the logo were small but they helped soften up thebiggest of Big Pharma. The surrounding identity however was what madePfizer really stand out from the rest this year.
This is one of the nicest refinements I've seen in some time.
— David Airey
New York Public Library
Designed by: NYPL In-house Staff
Release Date: November, 2009
Voting Highlight: 70% (728 of 1,040) Thought the New Lion was Roaringly Great
A great visual exploration of possible lion heads led to a great newicon for New York's beloved institution. Works great at large and smallsizes, something the old lion couldn't brag about.
It's a nice rendition, maybe a bit too "Rasta” for my taste, but competently executed.
— Dennis Van Staalduinen
I'mimpressed that this was done by their in-house team — not that in-housedesigners are inferior to agencies or anything like that. I just knowit can be difficult to imagine all the possibilities when you work soclosely with a brand. I used to work in-house for a public library inneed of re-branding, but I don't think I would've been the right personfor the job. Hats off to the NYPL team.
— Matt Barnes
Nickelodeon
Designed by: Eric Zim (wordmark)
Release Date: September, 2009
Voting Highlight: 53% (853 of 1,609) Preferred the New vs. the Old logo
A complete overhaul of not just the Nickelodeon channel we all grewup with but of the whole enterprise that has grown into multiplechannels airing in 175 countries, as well as a motion pictureproduction company, and hundreds of Nick-branded toys and games. It'snot the nostalgic splat anymore but it's not your attention they areafter, so better deal with it. Like Syfy — perhaps even in a stylistictrend — this is a bold, simple wordmark that can carry Nickelodeon foranother quarter of a century.
It is really hard to say that without being influenced bymy own childhood memories, but I think the old one looks awfully dated.It reminds me of late 80s and early 90s stuff, a world and a visuallanguage that obviously doesn't say much to the kids today.
— Pedro
Iwill definitely miss the splat logo, but this new one makes sensebecause Nick has had about a decade of slow reinvention. It'sdefinitely not what it was before, with bizarre shows like Ren &Stimpy and Ahh! Real Monsters. It's "trendy” now and has to appeal toseveral different audiences. I think this new wordmark achieves thatwithout offending too many people.
— Ainsley
City of Melbourne
Designed by: Landor (Sydney)
Release Date: July, 2009
Voting Highlight: 67% (1,020 of 1,520) Thought this was Way Cool
This new identity gained early praise when we first announced it, and then we got a chance to see all the different "M”s and it became even cooler. In terms of visual execution and diversity, this was one of the strongest of the year.
I haven't seen an identity that I found so inspiring in avery long time. I love everything about it. The color scheme, thetriangles, the implementation.
— Swifty
Even the parking tickets are exciting.
— Scott
AOL
Designed by: Wolff Olins
Release Date: November, 2009
Voting Highlight: 51% (1,232 of 2,374) are Willing to Give it a Chance
Amazingly, only 28% (673) Hated It, and 19% (469) Loved It
Hold the rotten tomatoes. I agree, AOL is neither technically noraesthetically the best logo or identity of the year. But no identitywill have a bigger impact in the evolution of a brand as AOL's. Mostcompanies brand to match their audience, AOL is branding to create anew audience. The name may conjure the 1990s but the identity istwenty-first century all the way. Wolff Olins may be the punchline formany designers but, even if you don't know it or care to admit it, theyare having the last laugh.
Geez, does Wolff Olins have some sort of magic pixie dustthat they sprinkle in their client's lattes to get them to buy off ontheir concepts? Most of them seem very disjointed and lazy in myopinion.
— Rico
Seems like another entry in the recent spatof brands whose logos rely on some bizarrely assorted array of imagesto convey and carry their brand instead of the actual logo itself. It'sshit. And I don't get why it's now a word, like many others here. Howcould that possibly strengthen anything? There's no combination ofsounds you can make from reading those three letters with thepunctuation that is even remotely attractive, memorable, positive, or,at the very least, has anything to do with the online world.
— Cory
Tobe sure, mutable wordmarks (visual play, around consistent letterforms)can be fun. Certainly, MTV and Nickelodeon showed you can get away withit on television, and Google has shown it can work on the Web. But arethese particular "Aol.” letterforms a strong-enough visual anchor? Notclearly. Verbally, they are still a hole in the hull. And are we nowexpected to write not AOL but Aol? (I refuse to add the period, intext.) And thus to speak it as a-awl, or a-owl? The punctuation of thelogo introduces uncertainty of the name in text applications... which isnot a good a way to build a stronger brand.
— Tony Spaeth