The Warehouse has a new logo...

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The Warehouse has a new logo...

nzherald article

so?

what do you think?

In the article Brian Richards said it was evident the new logo, designed in-house, lacked the touch of a professional designer.

Dude that's harsh!

Well, the big red shed couldn't really pull off a te papa logo so staying in house and going status quo probably keeps everyone happy! I'm not a fan of it tho...

It is alot more contemporary and modern then the old one but dosen't really reflect the same ideas.

Its alot more modern, but lacks the ideas the old one portrayed.

$1,000,000. say it with me. one MILLION dollars. a 1 and 6 zeros.
How in the heck do you spend that, even with user surveys, even in house with all the bureaucracy that entails, and end up with something so simple.
If a design company had pitched, and said, we'd like a budget of $1mil for this job, then presented something so clearly lacking in conceptual thought, surely they would've been laughed at.
"Where everyone gets a bargain" (except on logo design... in which case you get a new one ripped)

truthfully, I don't mind it, but I think I could've thrown it together a similarly basic treatment for a lot less than a mil. it possibly would've taken me a mil in time to sell them on it, but thats a different story.

I can't quite tell from that herald pic, but it looks like a simple treatment of univers or helvetica in two weights, stopped by the old yellow stripes (which I think the article was too harsh on, they needed some connection to their old logo - other than 'red' - with such a dramatic change in logotype), underlined by a handwritten font.
I do think I'd have a hard time bullshitting that one past my CD let alone to the client.

haha was it really worth '1 and 6 zeros'!!!??? I missed that - because that sure does change things! Perhaps they spent it on the 'testing' to find out all the consumers wanted was a plain new logo. The marketing guy did say they went all out but found it wasn't what the target market would want... Anyway makes the quick couple of hundred dollar logos ive had to churn out look like a real bargin! I'm hoping they didn't just turn up with it mounted on foam board!

Not meaning to be a dick about it, but you guys are missing the point by about 35 miles. The one and six zeros you speak of is the cost of implementation, not the cost to actually design the logotype... I mean come on, I would have thought that'd be obvious. You know stuff like: Website, Corp stationary, bags, signage, uniforms... and other such things.

As for the logo, I think it is good, it still embodies the company philosophy of afforability, whlist maintaining ties to the original logo and being updated to suit the expectations of contemporary society.

I personally would have kept the old one, constant re-branding isn't a good way to obatin one of those logos that everyone knows. Maybe slight tweaking every now and then, but if the likes of Shell or Coca-Cola had re-branded to a totally different look every 10 years, their brand wouldn't have nearly as much value. Some designs may seem garish for some generations and stylistic periods, but will re-circulate to become untouchable classics.

Word

I was just paying attention to the article when it said it cost that much to "develop". Didn't mention implementation at all. In fact I would imagine just the building signage across the country would cost more than a million to roll out.
So no, I don't think we missed the point at all.
I do imagine so much cost arose from design by committee and user testing rather than designer hours.
So arguably it didn't cost that much to design but I'm sorry I don't agree at all that the amount they mentioned was so much because it included collateral production/printing/embroidery etc.

I agree with you on constant change, like it or not the old was was instantly recogniseable. In my humble opinion the new one just isn't as distinctive.

hehehe, the ol logo was before its time i tell ya!....
http://www.coastlands.co.nz/stores/images/wharehouse.JPG

So haut right now ;) !

..skate brands like volcom etc try their tits off too recreate that retro/budget kinda look ! :D

//
but seriously, bad mooove wharehouse me thinks

last ditch effort, que; total re-branding o_0

Well, Barry, I couldn't find the part in the article that mention only developing the logotype for a mill, however, I did find these quotes that prove what I was on about earlier:

"The cost of new signs is covered by money already set aside to modernise and refurbish stores, so the one-off $1 million operating expense relates only to the rebranding of things such as bags, stationery and uniforms."

So, I was actually wrong about the signage thing, but all the other stuff was correct. ... (see next post)

Morning. A bit slow off the mark over here, but seems to me they probably shouldn't have listened to the customers. They've ended up with something just kinda *nice*. If in doubt, go unoffensive and non descript. I've seen worse come from "professional designers" though. How's about that TOLL logo. That's hideous!

I don't care how much they spent on it, but I'd like to know what the brief was. Perhaps they're not all about being a shabby old warehouse with plastic toys anymore, especially now they're moving into new markets. liquor! Maybe the brief was "where everyone gets a *nice* bargain".

Check out Briscoes. The logo almost says "homeware HOUSE" and that lady! Bring out the Prozac! Look how nice she is and how happy she looks with her tea. ahhh. so happy, happy. happy.

awwww, someone needs a hug ;)

thanks Barry. :)

I'd also like to try some some of what's in that mug of hers!

Charles mentioned that Shell and Coke have not rebranded... Well the truth is that they both have constantly tweaked and repostioned their logo's over the past 50 years. While not complete redesigns they have been significant shifts.

The Warehouse redesign is an important move forward for the company. While I don't think that they have done a great job, they have certainly brought the company inline with where they need to position themselves. The orginal logo was based on a odds and ends chain store – 'cheap plastic toys' as someone said, however the reality of what they sell is quite different. They are the single largest music retailer in New Zealand. They are competitors with the likes of Farmers and KMart, and they needed to look like they are in the same market.

A good way to see if the rebrand is successful is to try and visualise the original logo... if you can't or have difficulty then it worked. If not, they failed.

If you look at, say, the TV3 rebrand and then try and remember the original. I find it really easy and that was a number of years ago.

My 2c.

Yeah, thats true, I do think constant tweaking is a good thing, but yeah, obviously the Warehouse has done a total re-brand, with only one graphic element and the colour scheme remaining the same.

Funny about the TV3 example, I barely even noticed that it re-branded, but I guess now that I think about it, it is totally different! Good call

I think the key difference between the uber brands (coke, nike et al) is that though they have re-branded, its nearly always been subtle and they spend so much on really top notch brand development we just take it for granted. They trick you into thinking 'the brand has always been that way' they do it so well.

The thing that points to the logo re-design being a failure is that I've never seen a really succesful big brand have to explain their logo re-design in a telly ad.

Gideon, nice to see you contribute here! Interesting the shift to trying to compete directly with Farmers, obviously Farmers has always had a "we sell major brands" edge about them, the Warehouse has ALWAYS been about the budget choice. That fact is fairly well ingrained in the consumers mind. I think its why they've become so big on cd sales (and books too), they always "appear" to have the lowest price on any given item. Now, I know that isn't always true, but you have to do price research to prove otherwise. If you take their brand message for granted you'll go back every time without checking elsewhere. And plenty of punters do just that - its interesting to note here the brand loyalty they have despite being the budget player! I would have previously thought those two things were almost mutually exclusive.
So I'm really interested to see if they pull this rebrand off and eat into a bit of Farmers market. Its a bit confusing at the moment, they appear to be trying to have a bob each way - they've left the strap line "where everyone gets a bargain" in the new logo. I suspect their budget roots will be hard for consumers to overlook.

Good points Barry.

You're right they do tweak them subtly, but regularly. Unfortunately the general view of NZ companies is 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Which means that when their iDs break, they have to do a major overhaul and a big relaunch... which is both expensive and eats away at their brand loyalty.

We do a bit of work for Land Rover in NZ. Every six months or so we get a revised standard to work with (or ignore). Since we started working with LR there have been around 5 revsions to the core mark, all subtle, but comparing the marks from the orginal to todays there is a marked difference.

So maybe the Warehouse should have been doing this for the last few years.

Yes gideon, the warehouse should have worked the consumers differential threshold, and changed it subtlely(spelling?) like betty crocker progression often in logo design books. Marketing is so nerdy, consumers don't think like "Val Hooper, a senior lecturer at Victoria University and a specialist in brand management, said the script used for the tagline "where everyone gets a bargain" looked like a note specially handwritten for the customer.." I reckon theyd just be like oh more contemporary, yay.
It puzzles me that such a big organisation had not considered the future of the logo (its development), and had they, what would be the benefits of them making it such an obvious change as they have? Maybe that since everyone knew the old logo was oldskool and it was highly recognisable that they thought, we thought, we would love them so much more when they gave us something more ugly modern.!?or that they knew what we were thinking (its so oldskool) creating a closer customer-company relationship.
It was nice to see all these comments after thinking of such discussion points in my head by myself for so many weeks! =)
excuse any nonsensical bits been on holiday for a while now, cells are diminished just needed to let it out

I want the old logo back!!!!!!!

This new logo really doesn't mean much to me. I thought the old logo was great, one of the best brand marks in NZ. I loved the hand-drawn, dodgy kearning of the old logo. It really hit the mark with the Wharehouse's philosophy of "where every one gets a bargin". It was also very distinctive and memorable, surely two of the key aspects of a good logo. This new one is so bland and normal I think I have seen a billion logos just like it, san serif helvetica style font, boooooring. The article mentions that it has two good things, the bold use of the color red and the hand written style of the strapline. Wern't both those elements in the old logo?

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The Warehouse has a new logo...

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