#TransformTuesday: 21 July
Every week, Transform examines recent rebrands and updated visual identities. This week's picks are below. For more from #TransformTuesday, follow @Transformsays
Burger King
Last year Burger King played around with the rules of English grammar by changing its 40-year-old tagline. Out went 'Have it Your Way,' replaced with 'Be Your Way.' This sense of playfulness has now been carried through into other brand touchpoints, with San Francisco and London brand agency Turner Duckworth called in to emphasise the individualism of the Burger King brand. The bright colours, hand-printed styling and stamped-style iconography all give it that sense of a one-of-a-kind, unique experience for which 'Be Your Way' was developed.
Dataiku
Dataiku's bird
Plays poetry in data
And underscores code
There are some industries that non-tech folk find hard to understand. The cloud concept was one of them, but it got there. Big data still has a way to go to explain itself. French data science firm Dataiku has decided instead to highlight the art in science. Its name is a portmanteau between data and the Japanese poetry form, haiku. With its rebrand, done in-house, Dataiku has continued that juxtaposition. Its visual identity uses the poets favourite personal metaphor, the nightingale, sitting on a perch; except the perch has continued that convergence – it is an underscore, the symbol so beloved of coders.
Kew Gardens
Some brands convey the sense that nothing has been left to chance. Pentagram’s work for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is one such piece of work. Of the two typefaces chosen, one, a customised version of Baskerville, seems specifically chosen for its age; at 258, it is two years older than Kew Gardens itself - there’s not much that can trump that for history and heritage. The wordmark has become more central to the new visual identity. While this may emphasise a change of strategic purpose it is also carried out thoughtfully so as to avoid alienating its polarised audiences. On one hand it conveys a seriousness expected of such a scientific establishment, while on the other, retains a versatility that can be replicated in its consumer-facing brand touchpoints.
The Roald Dahl estate
Although Roald Dahl’s writing has been universally loved by children for over 70 years, his work was attacked by educationalists, with The Witches accused of sadism and misanthropy and removed from school libraries. He didn’t seem to mind. Dahl celebrated the savage in children and was contemptuous of authority. It’s hard to know what he would think of the new visual identity of the literary estate that bears his name. It lacks the anarchy of the original Quentin Blake illustrations, yet the new identity’s typeface still has a sense of disorder. London design firm Sunshine state that the estate’s three principles should be ‘masters of invention’, ‘makers of mischief’ and ‘champions of good’. Despite the element of mischief, there is still a sense of safety around the marque. But with Roald Dahl Rococo chocolates and Spielberg-directed Dahl movies about to be distributed, perhaps safety was necessary for the future of the Dahl legacy.
Sembcorp
It is always refreshing to see a company place its brand vision, mission and values prominently on its website. Global energy, water and marine group Sembcorp Industries has them all there, one click away on its home page, and its first vision is listed as a desire to be a global company. It’s no wonder then it’s dropping the 'wang'. In fact, Sembcorp Marine, the marine engineering arm of the Sembcorp group, has simplified the architecture of all its shipyards. Sembawang shipyard is now Sembcorp Marine Admiralty Yard and Jurong shipyard is now Sembcorp Marine Tanjong Yard. It’s the latest in the transformation and integration of its brand, a process it has labelled 'We Are One'.
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