August 2024 is just starting, and we already have a lot of news. We have a new round of logo critiques. This time, instead of our usual in-depth analysis of a single logo, we have three to review!
Our CEO was featured on Entrepreneur Magazine
First and foremost, some news of our own. We’re really proud since our CEO, Fabio Devin, was featured in Entrepreneur magazine in a very insightful article about client acquisition, which you can read at “Tried-And-True Tactics For Growing Your Client Acquisition Efforts.”
Talk about marketing experts, huh? And not to toot our own horn, but in other news, Dorve UX is making a killing with a list of new clients for our SEO services. The fact that we’re suddenly more SEO than UX-oriented is a whole story by itself, but we’ll talk about this in a new post by Fabio or Alice.
Logo Critique: Three Big Brands Changing Logos
As I said at the beginning, we have three logos to review. Unlike other cases, where we analyzed full rebrandings rather than just a logo redesign, this time we’ll have a round of logo critique.
Why, you may ask?
Well, of the three logos, only one has a full rebrand of note, and there’s not much more in terms of UI design (hence no UX design to talk about).
So, without further ado, let’s jump to the logos!
First Analysis: Envato Logo
Envato presented a new logo which got rid of its classic symbol of the leaf and its rounded font wordmark in what we could call a bold move.
The new logo now features a symbol that looks like a scribble resembling the capital ‘E’, followed by a wordmark in a bold font that looks sort of like Helvetica. The two elements together combine a modern and less structured look with a classic vibe. All things considered, this makes a lot of sense for the type of services they sell.
Now, my opinion on this. First of all, I’m not a big fan of rebranding efforts “just because”. Of course, I don’t know the reasoning from Envato’s executives, so maybe it wasn’t “just because”. But I feel they lost a bit with this new logo. If anything, I’d have updated the font (yes, using Nunito for years was a bit too much) and maybe reworked the leaf so it looks more like a leaf or whatever.
Another thing I don’t like is the shade of green they chose for the scribble. It’s too bright, almost fluorescent, which is now used as the primary color on the website (well, not exactly: it seems they realized the color was too bright and the green they use is a bit warmer).
In my opinion, the previous logo needed a refresh, but this complete change of direction with the new Envato logo looks a little tacky. But who am I to say?
Second Review: Speedo Logo
Speedo, the iconic swimwear company had a logo refresh. Unlike the case with the Envato logo, they went for a more classic approach, making slight changes to both the symbol and wordmark.
In my opinion, this was a brilliant move by Anomaly, the design agency. The symbol looks almost the same to an untrained eye, but for those specialized in branding and logo design, the improvements are clearly visible. So, they actually improved the logo without compromising the symbol.
The wordmark was changed as well. Again, just slight changes. Using a custom typography, the word “Speedo” looks more dynamic with a wider font, a slightly pronounced slant angle, and some rounding of the otherwise hard angles of the font. Simply brilliant.
The rebranding actually has a new font created and probably a new UI design, but so far we couldn’t see any of it, so it’s to be seen.
So, as logo critiques go, this is a 10/10, nothing to complain about.
But…
Believe it or not, I’m writing this halfway through the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. And Speedo didn’t even bother to add the logo to their website or app, let alone make some noise or PR.
Now, this is just my personal opinion, BUT in a UX and marketing agency like ours, this would be like “hey, here’s the new Speedo logo, let’s make waves!” (pun intended). I mean… is there a better occasion to do this than the Olympic Games? How can you miss this obvious fact?
Then again, this is not logo related, so well, let’s leave it at bad marketing.
Third Case: Itaú Logo and Brand Design
This one is a great example. Banco Itaú is the largest bank in Brazil and one of the most significant banks in Latin America and the world (in Brazil it actually is Itaú Unibanco). They are known for bold branding moves, and this case is no exception. They had a compelling reason to rebrand: to celebrate their 100th anniversary.
To kick things off, the company responsible for the rebranding is none other than Pentagram. As you can imagine, the stakes were high right from the start.
And, as expected, they did not disappoint. Pentagram created a logo and design system that is vastly superior to the previous one used by the Brazilian bank. I can say this firsthand, as I am a client of the bank.
While the design agency developed a comprehensive design system for various media—digital, physical, static, virtual, and everything in between (as you can see in the examples below)—I will focus primarily on the logo itself.
The most important aspect of the logo is the use of the squircle, a geometric shape that blends a square and a circle, featuring rounded corners and smooth transitions between straight and curved edges. This element is often employed in design for a softer, more approachable look, and the new Itaú branding prominently features this element everywhere. It is by far the main component of the branding and is included in all materials. Furthermore, there are specific guidelines on how to construct it, including adaptations for rectangles or squares and various use cases.
The second (and, for me, the first) important aspect is the use of orange. This has always been puzzling: the Itaú logo was yellow and blue. If you visited any branch of the bank, anywhere in the world, received their mail, or saw their advertisements, everything was… ORANGE! While both yellow and blue can be used seamlessly (blue is complementary, and yellow is adjacent to orange), the specific shades of blue and yellow they used were completely off-palette, making everything look cheap and unappealing. Thus, changing the logo to orange was a “DUH!” moment.
Inside the orange squircle, we find the wordmark. Pentagram created a typeface called “Itaú Display” and used the bold variant for the logo. Another significant change is that the “i” character is now lowercase. This seemingly minor detail (which some designers argue is poor design) makes a substantial difference: the bank is now clearly recognized as ITAU and not LTAU.
See how small details can make a giant difference?
Finally, we have the accent. In all previous versions, the accent had a steep inclination of around 50 degrees, which is the default for most fonts. However, Pentagram designed an accent with 0 degrees of inclination at the base and about 20 degrees at the top. The result is beautifully balanced: instead of the accent “hitting” the negative space of the U, the U now supports the accent, which extends beyond the negative space while still being recognized as an accent.
The final result is an easygoing, peaceful brand with no aggression, sharp angles, or edges, no contour bias, and no cognitive load… in short: perfection.
Logo Critique: Simply put, Pentagram demonstrates why they are at the top of their game. The new Itaú logo is one of the best logos I have ever seen in terms of construction and creativity (yes, a wordmark and a square can be creative, as shown here). When you add the entire branding implementation… ufff.
I’ll give it an 11/10 (yes, that’s how I roll).
PS: For those interested in logo design, I’d recommend visiting the Banco Itaú rebranding page to learn how a professional logo is done, pay special interest to the video on top.
To sum up
Three great brands with its respective rebrand images with varying degrees of success, the good news of Dorve CEO featured in Entrepreneur.com , some hints on our next moves… let’s us say this is some pretty interestng news for August 2024. And this is just the beginning!