Rebranding is no easy task. Especially for big brands that already have a big following. There have been many successful stories like Amazon or FedEx, but there are some redesigns that leave much to be desired. Lets take a look at a few recent examples.
Cracker Barrel
One wonders how much money companies pay to absolutely ruin their brand recognition and heritage. It would be so interesting to be a fly on the wall on these meetings just to see what a board of financial directors say is good design. But alas, one must separate themselves from client work. All of that so say that is has lost all of its charm! Where’s the guy?? Where’s the barrel???? It looks like freaking Golden Corral now, and its not even trendy since they’re about a decade late to the minimalist party. There is too much negative space in the shape, the shape itself is not inviting, it’s not reminiscent of country or homestyle vibes. I’m surprised they kept the same colors let alone the C going into the B logo. Fire the group of people that signed off on this, because only a group of board directors would say this is good.
MSNBC->MS NOW
Now this one makes a little sense if you really dig into it; The company that owned MSNBC sold it, so they have to do a rebrand. Anyways, that still does not justify the just okay-ness of this design. Sure it gets the job done by looking like every other news station (or postal office?) out there. But just like so so so many brands out there: where is the fun? The old logo had a diverse array of colors and interesting shapes made to resemble a peacock. Now we have a weird American flag equal sign thing? That also looks like toothpaste? They weren’t allowed to keep their original look, but that doesn’t mean they had to get rid of the playfulness too. All these news stations are more entertainment than actual news anyway, so make the logo fun too. My main quarrels: 3 boring color choices, irrelevant logo-mark, loss of personality from the original design. Sorry! Try again!
Apple Inc.
Now, this is by no means recent. But I believe we can trace back the trend of minimalistic logos to the original trendsetter: Apple. The original logo was designed in 1976 while the most recent iteration of the simplified logo is from 2017. At the time of the first redesign, in 1977, it was stunning and seemed like it came from the future. Which I’m sure was intentional. The reason for the huge change in design language was because the original was “old-fashioned” and difficult to put on products due to the amount of detail. It makes sense when you are put in their shoes. But I believe there is a different stance you can take. Imagine the sense of credibility an intricate logo like this can give your brand. If a consumer sees that you put in the time, effort, and money to print this on your products, they are forced to believe that it is of great importance and worth the money. Of course, that’s if your product is actually good. And considering that Apple has basically a monopoly on the phone market I think its safe to assume they were selling at least appealing products. Anyways, this is the one on the list that isn’t so bad and probably a good choice since they were looking towards the future from the past. I just really like the original heritage branding.