An old school brand gives way to the future
A few months ago we decided to stop writing about the ongoing transition of brands. Yet in this instance one can’t let the change of the “vic roads” brand go by without making some comment. Old school brands are fast becoming rare beasts.
The incumbent brand developed in 1989 seems to be inspired by the minimal graphic sensibilities of leading Australian designers of the time – such as Brian Sadgrove’s Futura inspired typeforms and bold colours used in graphic outcomes for Rio socks and Arts Victoria.
When we contacted Sadgrove for some insights on vicroads, he said that there seems to be no record of who designed it — “I have looked through my copy of their ‘Corporate Identity Manual’, just now and for the first time, it has no date and no evidence of who produced it… even the Chief Executive Officer’s introduction is anonymous! Sort of says it all.”
As unremarkable as the incumbent brand is nothing beats a bold uncomplicated brand when applying it to an ad, in print or on a road sign, as the brand itself stands out while complimenting a range of images and image styles.
The new brand of vicroads is by design company Oxygène, who have put in place a distinctive palette of graphic elements. As compared to a less complicated outcome, this new design is rich in graphic treatments – a new symbol and unique typeface employing a range of graphic effects.
Experience has shown that brands with a specific look can be restrictive in application over time. These restrictions become present as the brand ages, and the client seeks to expand and develop new and compelling presentations. A client in this instance makes the decision to break with the look and keep the brand, or modify the brand and update its presentation. The Telstra brand has gone through many such look and feel changes.
Graphic design developed in Australia is a rarely understood or appreciated profession and work practice. Typical of any major brand change is a raft of negative flack from the media and general public. Australians seem to have little time for the thinking and skill that goes into making a quality piece of communication work.
Following are some reactions to the vicroads brand change over. It doesn’t take long for any designer to become a little disheartened with feedback like this.
VicRoads just did an organisation-wide logo change. According to them, the old logo hadn’t changed in twenty years and they needed something to demonstrate that the way they do business with the public has changed.
What???
As far as I can see, the old VicRoads logo was FINE. It’s not like VicRoads have to compete with other road authorities for our business, we’re stuck with these retards, so why do they have to appear fresh and modern? Basically they’ve just wasted my rego fee on a graphic design company, change management consultants, signwriters and printing like $50,000 worth of stationery. I’d love to see the budget for the logo change but VicRoads is staying tight lipped about it. What a complete effing waste of my effing money! It’s a government department, they will never, ever, ever be fresh and modern in any sense of the word.
How about they reduce the stupid amount they charge for getting a new heavy vehicle endorsement licence printed, or reduce the rego fee by $2 per person, instead of making us sponsor this waste of time, money and paper?
The new logo is shit anyway.
– – –
Haha seems to be the done thing in this state, it’s just like the ridiculous amount of money they spent on that Melb city logo. Not only did that logo look crappy to begin with but print it in a black and white paper and it looses it’s depth and angles.
I’d just love for them to ask me to design such things, I might come up with anything better but geez for the price they pay I’m happy to design crap.
The bread company I used to work for paid $5 mill to change the logo on the bread packaging back in 2004 because they reckoned the customers couldn’t distinguish it well enough from the rivals bread. Less than 3 years down the track they redesigned it again to make it look similar to the rival in the hope the customers would pick it up by mistake.
Now we know why Vic Roads are changing all those road rules next week, it’s not for road safety or to bring us in line with other states it’s to confuse people so they can book them and use the money to pay for their new logo. It’s probably too much to ask them to put some of their money into training their staff in customer service too.
It is amazing to witness how many unqualified people are prepared to make an assessment of design work, and are prepared to employ their knowledge and insight to cast any amount of scathing criticism – It is no wonder that many designers are paranoid when their work is released. This style of feedback is typical of the media and public commentary and it seems that Australian design has little support in the community, and often the time, skills and fees used in a project attracts close and brutal scrutiny.
The last comment we leave with the Roads and Traffic Authority brand in New South Wales. The brand pictured was designed by Lunn Dyer (Tony Lunn and Ron Dyer) over twenty years ago too. For what it is worth, we think that the brand has at least another twenty years in it at least.
Thanks again to Mimmo and Brian for your imput.
Visit Brian Sadgrove Design here, and Oxygène here
2 comments2 Comments so far
Reply
I’m confused as to why you call a logotype a brand? A brand is a business or a businesses products. Can you expand on this? I am sure people in advertising and brand managers would strongly disagree with your terminology.
James, thanks for your comment.
Over twenty years ago the term brand barely existed – clients and designers developed logos, logotypes, typemarks, logotype plus symbol, their was corporate identity programs, trademarks, trademark design, ci design and so on.
A decade or so ago the word brand became an umbrella term that can cover the raft of components that make up a marketing and promotional campaign – a product, a staff member, writing, process, an advertising idea and well as a company’s emblem of symbol.
Brands are big business and when a company executive refers to protecting their brands – what exactly are they protecting? We don’t think it is the craft and care that has gone into making a letter form or a graphic rendering that has spectacular palette of effects. In marketing, a brand can cover a range of outcomes. However, much of what we investigate on this website is focused upon the making of graphic marks, emblems and typography that make up an organisation’s corporate icon, or emblem. We often mix the terms brand and logotypes, as sometimes we can be a little old school when it comes to making graphic icons, emblems and marks, and too much brand speak can scare off the graphic design nerds.
However your point is a valid one, and often we will tighten a headline, or a passage by just using – brand, rather than using – a graphic emblem for a corporate identity project – we have been naughty and we are likely to break your rules again. The range of terms in corporate identity allows us to repeat a term in a variety of forms without appearing to be repetitive.
A little digging in design and marketing’s recent past will reveal that nonclementure of brands is loose at this point in history – as old terms seem to often exist along side new terms. Along with this range of terms many clients (from large to small organisations) we deal with can often mix these terms – and who are we too correct them, we are grateful for their patronage. Coupled with the potential for a new term to hit the hot list for design and marketing speak – there is much to take into consideration when writing about trademarks. Frankly James, if we get harassed by branding people for not turning a term correctly in contemporary terms, we will be tempted to invite them to find better causes to pursue – like changing the general public’s perception of branding and marking of logotypes in general.
James as you have helped point out, there is a lot of up keep on any website – accuracy, consistency, potential content oversights to upset readership, and then there is project work in the studio to do. James if you would like to edit this website, we could do with the help, however there is a catch, we pay in goodwill.