Why Companies Are 'Debranding'

[pHiL Kizer]

I found this very interesting and relevant.  Enjoy 

 

 

[neo_prankster]

I think it might have to do with being able to reproduce on mobile app icons.

[kmccarthy27]

19 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

I think it might have to do with being able to reproduce on mobile app icons.

I also feel the simpler the logo the cheaper it is to print something as it uses less resources. 

[TrueYankee26]

Good thing trends come and go, so hopefully there will be a reverse

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

1 hour ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Good thing trends come and go, so hopefully there will be a reverse

I hope not for a long time, as this simplification trend is a very welcome one. Good riddance to such unsightly clutter as faux-3D, bevels, motion lines, and shadows.

[dont care]

11 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

I hope not for a long time, as this simplification trend is a very welcome one. Good riddance to such unsightly clutter as faux-3D, bevels, motion lines, and shadows.

I wouldn’t consider them “faux-3D” because for many of them they are just making them look how they really look in real life. All the car branding that’s going simpler while keeping the emblems the same is counterproductive. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

3 hours ago, dont care said:

All the car branding that’s going simpler while keeping the emblems the same is counterproductive. 

No way. Those are precisely the types of changes that are positive developments, examples being the new versions of the logos for Volkswagen and BMW. In those cleaned-up logos, the silly shadow effect has been ditched in favour of a pleasingly straightforward presentation of well-known iconography.

 

And it's not just car companies. One of the best recent logo updates has been the restoration of the longstanding classic logo of Burger King. The deformed latter-day logo's rotated effect was removed, as were motion lines. (The irritating use of motion lines is especially gratuitous and nonsensical in that case; your damn burger is not spinning!)

 

There is no way to describe these features other than faux-3D, as they are explicitly designed to mimic the presence of a third dimension. The result had been a great deal of unsightly visual clutter. If the people who design graphical logos have come to accept that they are working in two dimensions, this is a very good thing for the aesthetic landscape — which is what I care about.

 

This is also a good thing for what those people themselves care about, namely, the commercial interests of the companies in question. A clean two-dimensional presentation makes a logo's shape more memorable (and, importantly, makes the logo doodle-able). On a subconscious level, the use of a 2-D logo in a 2-D setting communicates a lack of deception that can only help customers' perception of a brand's trustworthiness.

[GrayJ12]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:31 PM, neo_prankster said:

I think it might have to do with being able to reproduce on mobile app icons.

I feel like Apple's big UI rebrand with iOS 8 back in 2014 is a big inspiration with this "debranding" and shutting towards more basic branding features...the philosophy of this branding style (Corporate Memphis) is very interesting to read up on.