Tag Archives: rebranding

From MedNet to GlobeMed: now works now!

By Admin I: Yea, we kinda know it’s not so cool to attend a press conference about a rebranding job, meet the greatest people, listen to chinese-like insurance-ish fake promises and eat amazing delights, while in the end, you go back to your laptop and bluntly state your opinion. Well, that’s what we do, and local brands should live with it: we don’t send posts before publishing and we just don’t fit in ‘the’ cycle.

From MedNet to GlobeMed and a quite huge visual shift from the old and dusty to the ‘now’. Not totally futuristic and not super referential, but more into the present status-quo of design. The new logo looks modern and ‘franchisable’ with a hint of minimalism ruined by the overdone icon. While typography reinforces a less rigid aspect of the new brand and stays modern, the icon screams 90s: A 3d-ish gradient sphere hinting ‘the globe’ (who said cliche in the back?!) and entities leaning forward justified by a ‘dynamic interaction between form, transparency and color‘.

Blue for ‘responsible, global and professional‘ and green for ‘fresh,healthy and evolving‘ all look more of a convenient blend between corporate and medical and very very close to the famous ‘Standard Chartered’ color scheme.

The best thing in this job, is literally what they called ‘the brand expression‘ a publication containing the A to Z of the design process, from mood board to type selection, photography, color scheme and communication tools, allowing their audience to get related to the brand and know the ‘why’ behind it.

One last note, the kashida in the Arabic adaptation is too long and distracting (woof, i had to say it!), and the outdoor campaign looks totally passive.

We’re proud to have design aware businesses in Lebanon, yet we’d be happy to see the very conventional going out of the box sometimes, even if its spot is well filled and brilliantly managed.

A team from M&C Saatchi was responsible of this shift and having to deal with Lebanese classicism, you did a good job you guys!

Cheers!

Le Mall: Are you IN?

September 14, 2012

Advertising, Design

2 Comments

Le Mall: Are you IN?

By Admin I: So we practically have a case of rebranding or let’s use the technical term ‘brand lifting’, and a campaign by M&C Saatchi, launching the new branch of LeMall, yes, the one looking like an intestine right next to ABC Dbayeh.

Whether you hate the architecture as much as I do or not, someone has to acknowledge some good efforts trying to modernize the mall experience as a whole. The logo underwent a discrete lifting process, dropping the useless mix of type, and reaching a more coherent result, all caps with a focus on the letter M: modern, present and well done, totally brought to life by the well designed signage and navigation system inside the mall.

What I’m totally IN for this whole launching campaign, are definitely the outdoors. Sometimes there’s no need for a fully saturated concept and a forced twist; it’s indeed when ‘less is more’ works its magic on you, even if you’re not really a minimal designer. The copywriting twist “Are you in?” hinting trendy, and as well hinting a place, a question that makes you want to check the new mall, does the right amount of buzz without overdoing the propaganda.

This well written ad, was complemented by a beautifully designed visual, plastic colors, an interesting layout integrating the model INside the type (again stressing on the headline) that was meticulously chosen to reinforce the logo. (We’re trying to bribe the designer to send us that typeface, shushhh!)

TVCs came expected, the good side of ‘expected’, very fresh and modern looking, fast cuts full of energy and hip!

I’m sure someone would come up and say that this campaign is too ‘usual’, but in my brofessional perspective, if everyone can do ‘usual’ and make it look as visually and conceptually pleasing, then let it be ya’ll!

Grand Cinemas “Why not” to fail in rebranding

June 24, 2012

Advertising, Design

2 Comments

Grand Cinemas “Why not” to fail in rebranding

By Admin I : So gladly Grand Cinemas decided to ditch their gold gradient very unbalanced mix of cheap typefaces they call a logo and rebrand. Rebranding is quite a need for many brands yet the step takes a whole lot more than guts. The rebranding process is perceived as a step that requires a daring decision to change, while the failing examples clearly show that it needs a reach to the audience and an authentic study on how to reshuffle a whole image without making it worse. Sadly, Marketing strategists are the ones taking charge of such decisions, and those “we know everything” head of marketing departments usually end the debate saying that the audience will get used to the rebranding job with time.. buzzzz-no! Even GAP had to do the job twice because of the outrageously bad feedback, and zaatar w zeit – as a local example – is still facing the consequences of taking such a bad step.

Anyways, Grand Cinemas clearly wanted a minimal logo (Gosh, minimalism feels like H1N1, it reaches the mass when it starts to vanish) so the end result came just boring, character-less and could suit a financial institution more than a chain of cinemas. Double checking the slogan “always entertaining” would’ve saved a whole journey of failure, the logo is by no means showing any aspect of entertainment, even talking typography, the use of Century Gothic (or a look alike, typical amateur choice of sans serif) makes the logo feel uninteresting with a very late 90s influence.

Credit: http://www.beirutdriveby.com

Failing rebranding, check. Advertising: hmm… It’s kind of soothing to see that some clients are actually accepting a copywriting approach, and digesting the absence of imagery, or naked women doing irrelevant stuff, that’s already a plus; but what if the copywriting job saying “why not .. doing crazy stuff” came in the same period when LB beer’s hit campaign was saying “do something brave”; Well close to being inspired* or not, that’s not the point, the point is that the use of copywriting probably came to reinforce the minimal approach, but suddenly complicated it, and delivered weird messages like: “Champagne, Caviar and popcorn at the movie, why not” WHY YES?! Who would want a cigar caviar whatever sort of pretentious lifestyle at a movie theater, contradicting the whole concept of cinemas at the first place.

A step further reaching a more pretentious society, living on fake perceptions of appearances, where cinemas will probably have a Botox surgeon in a couple of years, when designers will still fear experimentation and marketers take over the planet and dress it up with Louis Vuitton prints!

Bank of Beirut rebranding

February 26, 2012

Design

18 Comments

Bank of Beirut rebranding

By Admin I : It actually took me a while to write this post after a huge debate accusing me personally and the blog in general of being too negative in our reviews; After leaving this debate unconvinced, I had to write about a rebranding job, a subject that directly relates to my major and passion, design.

This time, you can’t call me negative, I even dropped a bit of my ego iceberg and asked 3 of my fellow designers for feedback concerning the new Bank of Beirut logo. I even asked a regular person with no design background (yes, gone that far!).

Well, this rebranding tse-tse infecting many Lebanese brands lately is definitely making a change in the scene and that change is not promising, in general. whether the failing Zaatar w Zeit logo or the beyond weak BLC bank rebranding and even the new Bank of Beirut, Lebanese brand identities show a declining curve in the design field, by decontextualizing local brands from their true essence and overdoing the modern feel which is subtracting from the general appeal more than adding to it.

Bank of Beirut had an Arabic/Latin lettermark logo, that portrayed an authentic “Beirut” feel with a modern edge in the type treatment, this old logo definitely looked old because of the duplicated lettermark giving a hint of shadow, an issue that could’ve been solved by a prompt brand identity lifting process.

Instead of paying a small sum of money and keeping the authentic approach, the bank decided to reshuffle and rebrand. A new visual approach with a cubic geometric icon hinting a letter “b” in a Japanese-like context: Origami.

The new icon looks off the type, with a definite loss of balance between geometric and organic not to mention the loss of the Lebanese feel and context.

We’re wrapping up the post still questioning the point behind the approach, simply because cubism is not always arabesque, in case that was the purpose. So let’s all together discuss this rebranding job, in case we were too negative in that post. Awaiting your feedback and if we got lucky the Bank’s point of view or the design agency, in the end, I shouldn’t be the only one dropping some ego!

Zaatar w Zeit a Lebanese brand gone wrong!

December 15, 2011

Design

25 Comments

a collage featuring the old and new logo by Admin I

Zaatar w Zeit a Lebanese brand gone wrong!

By Admin I : It has been called “the worst re-branding ever” - “a Zen el atet logo” – “a spa logo” – “lost all the uniqueness” – “wishing the Z was never found” and many other names and comments and accusations.

If you think this re-branding failure buzz should be over by now, you’re not that accurate. it’s starting all over again with each new branch opening, with reshuffled interiors that suit the new identity but look totally deceiving. “it feels more like sitting in a clinic than being at a casual lebanese restaurant that mainly serves mana’eesh!” a loyal customer declares.

to be honest, the logo itself if decontextualized, is based on a strong creative thinking, especially that it has been accompanied by the “missing Z” campaign to be revealed as a negative space letter Z in the new logo itself featuring a leaf of thyme and a drop of oil in a very typical way.

we thought the dilemma should end with the new interiors, as the ZwZ team promised a surprising experience to come but the nightmares are still going and the brand is losing more of the main aspect that attracted people to it : its “pop” appeal, and the very engaging sketchy style, that was appreciated and copied .. we had a “a la zaatar w zeit” trend for a while !!

the dilemma did not stop, and the new visuals released on their Facebook page, show a very cliche’ sense of design, with a grungy typography that might show a layer of regret, as a result of the very clean yet outrageously attacked rebranding job ..

We’re sure you can find your way out ZwZ, but maybe you should have listened to the numerous crowds on your page and admitted the failure to earn respect. major brands in the world have been through this and were able to fix it – aka PEPSI (they’re still trying though!).

After all, nobody likes being a subject of branding courses taught at design schools, labeled as “a great brand gone wrong”.

—Brofessional Review

lebanese / design / advertising / fashion / media

Archive

Tag Archives: rebranding

From MedNet to GlobeMed: now works now!

Le Mall: Are you IN?

Grand Cinemas “Why not” to fail in rebranding

Bank of Beirut rebranding

Zaatar w Zeit a Lebanese brand gone wrong!

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