I say, “Good job, Tropicana!” It’s nice to see a large brand be willing to backtrack and listen to consumers.  If only their parent company, Pepsico would follow their lead and go back to the old Pepsi logo!

What’s disturbing about this is that Tropicana’s corporate culture was so dense that this terrible design got through in the first place!  How many people along the way hated the new brand, but couldn’t say anything to their boss for fear of getting fired?  That’s frightening.  And how many people lied about the new brand by claiming that it was a good redesign?

So, I suppose this is a big day for bloggers everywhere – our collective efforts and freely shared opinions actually made a difference!  We can rest assured that our orange juice will once again look as good as it tastes.  God bless us every one.

Here’s a link to the New York Times article

And in case you missed it, here’s the article I wrote about the new design.

Take, for instance the United Parcel Service (UPS) logo:

UPS Logo - Old and New

The old logo, designed by Paul Rand was actually amazing.  It’s actually quite a bit stronger than the new logo, but the change to the new logo was the right move to make.  UPS successfully grew it’s “UPS” brand to be a globally recognized force.  It’s rare to hear someone call the company “United Parcel Service”; rather, everyone instantly equates “UPS” to package delivery.  The old logo was a big part of making that happen, with the symbolism of a package at the top and a shield on the bottom, combining the ideas of parcel, strength and safety.  As the company came into the new century, their customer base had grown younger, more modern, and more demanding.  In addition, UPS no longer had to “spell out” the parcel nature of the business.  Therefore, the shift away from depicting a package, and more toward a modern interpretation of a shield was an excellent choice.  The new logo is a perfect example of a design realign – it kept the “soul” of the original identity, but got rid of extraneous elements.

Here’s a link to the article that got me thinking about this:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/redesignrealign

My one disagreement with the List Apart article is that I think there are more times where a redesign is necessary than Mr. Moll gives credit for.  There are internal company issues that can be helped by a redesign.  Often a company can become mired in sundry ruts, from the way employees view the company, to the way customer support treats their employess, and often a corporate identity redesign can help everyone in the company to get jolted out of those ruts.  Therefore, often times a redesign benefits the company in ways other than attracting new clientele or better serving the current customer base.

However, it remains a good question to ask, and a good reminder to all of us designers – don’t jump the gun to a full redesign!  It will require more planning and work, but it could be that a realignment will better serve your clients.