Monday 20 February 2012

Awesome rebranding exercises

Beyond satire:

From thedrum.co.uk:

Queens Cross Housing Association in Glasgow has undergone a brand identity developed in conjunction with Stand and a working group of staff and tenants. The new logo is the first rebrand for the 35 year old housing organisation, which manages nearly 4,500 properties along the Forth and Clyde Canal area of Glasgow.It was made up of a circle, wavy line and sideways C. The circle is said to represent community and togetherness, and the wavy line represents the land, joining together to make the Q. The sideways C inside the Q represents the horizon over the land.

From whathouse.co.uk:

Thames Valley Housing Association (TVHA), one of the largest affordable homes providers in the South East, has launched Fizzy Living, a new residential rental business which will provide apartments for young professionals.

TVHA's new initiative offers a long-term solution to providing private rental accommodation on a large scale. With a new subsidiary called Fizzy Living, TVHA intends to create a portfolio of more than 1,000 new homes aimed at young professionals in London and the South East.

TVHA appointed branding agency Heavenly, after a competitive tender, to help create the Fizzy brand, ensuring it appeals to a core audience of 25-34 year old self-styled "rentysomethings".

11 comments:

Nick Drew said...

my favourite branding story is this DECC nonsense, paid for by the taxpayer, natch

there are many others: e.g. Enron (a newly-formed co when 3 pieplines merged in 1985) was to have been called 'Enteron', until the very last minute when someone looked it up in a dictionary ... (true)

Bayard said...

These people really are getting money for old rope. I remember after BP had spent thousandsof pounds getting their logo changed ever so slightly, the owner of Kwiksave was interviewed and claimed to have changed his logo only once and then he'd done it himself "in ten minutes with a ballpoint pen". When I needed a logo for a new company I'd formed, I found a picture on the internet, "borrowed" it, made a few changes and hey presto, instant logo.

Mark Wadsworth said...

ND, I remember it well, I commented at yours at the time. And as we know, Housing Associations are government bodies, so this nonsense is being paid for by the taxpayer as well.

B, exactly. Apparently, the key element is the company name, people can't remember the rest, with a few exceptions like Mercedes star etc.

View from the Solent said...

The sideways blue C represents the horizon? Too much Buckfast, methinks.

JJ said...

Phew! I wouldn't even try to compete with that first logo!

Its really put me in my place.

I've done logos for £50 a time but not as good as that.

A K Haart said...

I seem to remember the BBC once paid to have the letters BBC changed from BBC to BBC but more upright.

JJ said...

I managed to revamp my blog banner in just 35 minutes.

Mark Wadsworth said...

VFTS, it means what they say it means. I'd have done the green squiggle blue for a river and done the blue semi-cricle green for land, but hey, what do I know?

JJ, have you got any trade samples? I like a good logo.

AKH, yes, they paid a million quid to have them verticalised. I liked the sloping one better anyway.

JJ, aha, i do like your heavy metal band style silver letters! Can you squeeze in an Umlaut sömewhere?

JJ said...

When I get some time Mark I'll see what I can do with MW...how wil you include it though in your banner?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JJ, I can bung it in to the left and right? You're the expert, if you want to do something flash for me, that'd be great. Easy on the Umlauts though!

Bayard said...

"AKH, yes, they paid a million quid to have them verticalised."

I suppose if you are working for an organisation like the Beeb, you have to charge a million quid or they won't take you seriously. However, that's no excuse for the Beeb who could have had it done in house, but OTOH, the guy who ran the design consultancy was probably a mate of the Chairman or somebody else high up.