This space has covered a range of brand makeovers and the subject has become a little tiresome.

As previously mentioned, changing a brand in recent times is a hot to-do item on a sleepy corporate agenda, as it keeps a studio full of designers employed. One is happy that in this case that the fees, reportedly AU$15million, helped a team of designers keep busy, and hopefully these fees helped knock over a few mortgages, or funded several holidays.

The sad thing about this brand makeover, and a whole lot of other brand makeovers, is that the overall dialogue about design is not a constructive process. The ANZ rebrand has witnessed a raft of negative reviews from a vocal minority – designers and journalists. These reviews have subsequently trickled down to the wider public who assess this news story as a trivial whinge fest.

On this occasion we have mixed up our response to seek a broader and constructive response.

Some good things about the new ANZ brand:

• it employed a team of design and marketing people
• the outcome explores creative and design expression for large companies
• its recall and roll out will employ a range of new trades and manufacturing
• this brand dared to add a symbol to its visual suite
• the lettering is a departure from the extra bold incumbents
• the grey, white and blue colour palette is also a new departure from a prominent blue palette
• it is interesting witnessing the lettering transform from hard corners to all curves
• the symbol has curious abstract quality and has inspired many responses – from lotus to crying baby
• the project commissioned a local creative outfit

Some opportunities from the new ANZ brand:

• hopefully all the materials used in the recall and roll out will be minimised, recycled or reused in some way
• mixing the italic inspired ‘A’ and roman ‘NZ’ is a design challenge which requires a vast amount of design testing and review
• the italic inspired ‘A’ has achieved an awkward shape and relationship with the other letter forms
• the multiple horizontal striping makes a more prominent graphic expression as compared to a single stripe
• maybe the ANZ could move from being a typemark and symbol to just a symbol mark
• there is a vast amount of feedback available for the next round of brand change
• there is a vast amount of feedback available for any company looking to change their brand
• there is an opportunity to keep this new brand relevant over 10 year with an imaginative communication programme in place

We think that it is a given that many brands that don’t need changing will face a chorus of make overs in the future. For generations people have happily superceded great things, that often don’t need changing, for the sake of keeping up with what is hot, hip and contemporary. Why should a company’s brand mark escape this hapless trend? Maybe the next big brand change will be less about creating a contemporary expression and more about having the consideration and craft invested in it to be a brand that gets better as the years roll by.

What makes brands last are the brands that have graphic elements (type and image) that are quirky yet are well crafted. As compared to ANZ ’s incumbent brands, one feels that the awkwardness of the letter forms invested into latest ANZ brand will make it less desirable and as time goes by.

We are considering (as a process for recommendation in our next large brand redesign project), that it may be valuable to seek the opinions of a select panel of peers prior to launch, rather than dealing and assessing feedback in forums like this after the project is officially launched.

Thank you Simeon King for the following links:

News.com.au
Under Consideration – Brand New