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Opinions on corporate and brand identity work. A division of UnderConsideration.

Best Buy's New TagOctober 10

Update #2: A good branding samaritan has sent in the official logo for Best Buy and the appropriate images have been updated, so the above image is the official logo. The logo is set in a modified version of Klavika.

Update #1: The above logo is not the official logo, I apologize for the confusion. At JasonNessa.com where I got the logo from, clearly states "The replicated logo above will give you a very close look of what the new logo looks like, but NOT the exact look." which was my oversight. Nonetheless there is something odd going on as the logo on the backdrop and the store sign are indeed different.

Founded in 1966 as Sound of Music and renamed to Best Buy in 1983, the consumer electronics giant is one of the largest and most ubiquitous retailers of its kind with its low prices, khaki-and-blue-polo employee uniforms and slightly deafening store experience. With more than 1,000 locations worldwide Best Buy opened a 45,000-square-foot in Minneapolis' Mall of America on August 6 and, more thrilling (at least for me) than the August 8th performance and autograph signing by New Kids on

Spinning WheelsOctober 8

Mindshare, the media company formed by the 1997 merger of the media departments of JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, has rebranded as part of a global restructuring at WPP. This re-engineering of the brand involves a complete remake of the identity, save the retention of the color purple. Even the name itself has seen a shift in the reduction of the letter "S." The redesign was developed in partnership with Moving Brands, who explain that "The symbol has been created to reflect the structure and form of Mindshare's business. It shows two forms coming together to create a new, strong form reflecting Mindshare's partnerships with clients, suppliers and other agencies." You can read a bit more about the rebrand on Mindshare's web site.

While the typography of the wordmark is nothing to write home about, and the logomark is appealing in its static form, the redesign's strength is best evidenced when in motion, as can be seen on the Mindshare websi

In Brief: Vancouver 2010 IdentityOctober 6

If you can get past the too-clever term of "Transmoflection," here is a great video about the development of the visual identity for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver

Global is as Global doesOctober 3

Owned by financial services firm Barclays, Barclaycard is one of the largest credit card providers in Europe and India. And it recently unveiled a new identity designed by The Brand Union that is as much about moving the service provider forward as it is about mimicking what other brands have already done: Kodak, Xerox, AT&T, Ericsson, blah, blah, blah.

The new symbol depicts a world that is calm and confident on the outside, whilst warm and vibrant on the inside. In creating a symbol that is separated from the brand name, the new logo works better online and on some emerging payment tools such as mobile phones.

Rhidian Taylor, Barclaycard's head of brand management, added: "Our current logo and look have worked well for us as a UK credit card company, but they do not reflect the global payments company we have become. We needed to create a modern and distinctive look which signals where we are going as opposed to where we have been."

It really is dispiriting to see such a derivative design from a design trend that is already poor to begin with. The "global" icon goes into a sligh

The Softer Side of MemorexOctober 1

Before I did the obligatory Googling if you had asked me what Memorex does I would have said recordable CDs and DVDs, period. I would have never guessed that they also sell TVs, DVD players, and all sorts of other audio equipment. This is perhaps as much my fault for not staying on top of my consumer electronic brands but also a reflection of the saturation point that Memorex achieved with their ubiquitous packs of CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. This past September, Memorex — self described as "one of the most trusted and recognized consumer brands in modern marketing history." — unveiled a new identity that, apart from signaling change it shifts its focus and attention to a female consumer.The S

Through research, we found that women were largely neglected by current electronics brands. Our specific target consumer is a savvy female shopper, between ages 25 and 44, who is constantly on-the-go and has an expressive sense of style.
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Press Release