[logo] Ubuntu Has A Nifty New Logo

2334.

Just peeped via something somehow, with version 10.04, the open source (and free-as in beer) Linux OS Ubuntu is getting a keen new look:

Here’s the main logo versions:

In my opinion, the Ubuntu logo has always been one that hit a home run. But this new, more typographical approach for me was love at first site. Drawing its inspriation from a bunch of type design I’ve seen lately, such as Myriad and Clearview, coming up with a simple clean sans-serif (provided this wasn’t an off-the-shelf font solution) and making the lovely graphic Ubuntu logo mark a sort of supersciripted typographical mark, sort of like an asterisk with a whole lot of extra meaning.

All of the Ubuntu marks are getting the treatment, and in others parts that aren’t strictly OS, such as the Kubuntu projects, spatial positioning and that beautiful font they’re using do the job. Canonical’s website is reportedly getting an update too.

• Read: See the whole thing at WebUpd8 here: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/03/new-ubuntu-1004-theme-and-logo-revealed.html

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, logo redesign, logo design, branding, rebranding

Tropicana OJ Redesign FAIL: The Brand Redesign That Should Have Worked … But Didn’t

1990.Sometimes you get a design that clicks, that’s solid, that absolutely nails it. Anyone who knows anything about design … and a lot of people who don’t know design and aren’t emotionally invested in your look … will look at this design and say “Good golly–that’s dead cool.”

Such a design, in my opinion, is the recent Tropicana redesign. Leaving behind the “straw into the orange” and traditional type with the studly majuscule T in the front is a picture of the actual product was a clean, bright design by the Peter Arnell concern.

Illustration via Logo Design Love

Now, this is what I call an evolved design. Unified, accessable, appropriate type, and the product–and all its percieved quality–right up front (ever tried to actually suck orange juice out of an orange via a straw? Mur-der, at least on the old cheeks, there. And notice that the plastic cap has become a little tiny half orange (called by some wags the orange b**bie, where *=o).

Brilliant, tight, designed.

And everybody hated it. Hated, Hated, Hated, Hated, Hated it![1]:

IT took 24 years, but PepsiCo now has its own version of New Coke … The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look.

Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.”

Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices.

Tropicana’s old design will return within a month due to apparently-overwhelming consumer demand. I hear the orange “b**bie” will remain, however,

A lot of designers I’ve read via teh Google are unhappy with the redesign as well, so the design mind is hardly of monadic character on this. I disagree. The new design is clean, appropriate, relies on a strong typographical theme and puts the quality of the product right up front. I think it was timely, but as with ever New Coke moment, sometimes you just can’t help but underestimate how emotionally attached customers are to a look and feel.

For a lot, Tropicana without the orange-with-a-straw just isn’t Tropicana.

Well, someone did once say a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.

Just for the sake of the record, the design is (at this writing anyway) still up at the Tropicana products website. Here’s a screenshot:

And here’s an example of the print ad design:

The warm oranges being a counterpoint “splash of color” next to black and white photos of smiling nice people form an interesting dynamic tension. The print ad format and the website format are winners too. I respond to them. Shame more people don’t.

The designer whose name is on the project, Peter Arnell, is put in the odd situation of defending a successful redesign:

According to Peter, it’s about giving each other hugs, and “the power of love”.

Upon such intangibles is identity design supported, but it seems axiomatic: allying Tropicana with warm colors and affectionate images bespeaks similar qualities in the product itself–warmth, affection, goodness. Logo Design Love has the designer speaking at a press conference about it, which can be viewed here.

[1] apologies to Roger Ebert.

Technorati Tags: Tropicana rebranding, brand design, branding and identity, brand redesigns, brand redesigns that failed

Tropicana OJ Redesign FAIL: The Brand Redesign That Should Have Worked … But Didn’t

1990.Sometimes you get a design that clicks, that’s solid, that absolutely nails it. Anyone who knows anything about design … and a lot of people who don’t know design and aren’t emotionally invested in your look … will look at this design and say “Good golly–that’s dead cool.”

Such a design, in my opinion, is the recent Tropicana redesign. Leaving behind the “straw into the orange” and traditional type with the studly majuscule T in the front is a picture of the actual product was a clean, bright design by the Peter Arnell concern.

Illustration via Logo Design Love

Now, this is what I call an evolved design. Unified, accessable, appropriate type, and the product–and all its percieved quality–right up front (ever tried to actually suck orange juice out of an orange via a straw? Mur-der, at least on the old cheeks, there. And notice that the plastic cap has become a little tiny half orange (called by some wags the orange b**bie, where *=o).

Brilliant, tight, designed.

And everybody hated it. Hated, Hated, Hated, Hated, Hated it![1]:

IT took 24 years, but PepsiCo now has its own version of New Coke … The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look.

Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.”

Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices.

Tropicana’s old design will return within a month due to apparently-overwhelming consumer demand. I hear the orange “b**bie” will remain, however,

A lot of designers I’ve read via teh Google are unhappy with the redesign as well, so the design mind is hardly of monadic character on this. I disagree. The new design is clean, appropriate, relies on a strong typographical theme and puts the quality of the product right up front. I think it was timely, but as with ever New Coke moment, sometimes you just can’t help but underestimate how emotionally attached customers are to a look and feel.

For a lot, Tropicana without the orange-with-a-straw just isn’t Tropicana.

Well, someone did once say a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.

Just for the sake of the record, the design is (at this writing anyway) still up at the Tropicana products website. Here’s a screenshot:

And here’s an example of the print ad design:

The warm oranges being a counterpoint “splash of color” next to black and white photos of smiling nice people form an interesting dynamic tension. The print ad format and the website format are winners too. I respond to them. Shame more people don’t.

The designer whose name is on the project, Peter Arnell, is put in the odd situation of defending a successful redesign:

According to Peter, it’s about giving each other hugs, and “the power of love”.

Upon such intangibles is identity design supported, but it seems axiomatic: allying Tropicana with warm colors and affectionate images bespeaks similar qualities in the product itself–warmth, affection, goodness. Logo Design Love has the designer speaking at a press conference about it, which can be viewed here.

[1] apologies to Roger Ebert.

Technorati Tags: Tropicana rebranding, brand design, branding and identity, brand redesigns, brand redesigns that failed