After my Pepsi re-branding fiasco post, the new Holiday Inn mark follows suite. I just don’t believe a hotel brand should feel like an inexpensive shampoo label or days-marked-off-a-prison-cell-wall (at least it was only a three day stay). Scary to think there surely was a big brand strategy, hundreds of thousands of dollars and a significant brand bible behind this re-branding effort…

…come in all shapes and forms. The turtle that comes to my mind is the one in a mark of a magical resort I tend to stay at a couple of times a year. Here is their very appropriate logo:

It was surprising to see the logo below in an article in the latest issue of Dynamic Graphics. The fat headline above reads ‘I DID IT MY WAY’. Ouch.

I assume and hope that the logo (which never was used by the designer’s client, luckily for more than one reason, as the article describes), nor its designer, have ever come in touch with El Capitan Canyon, so the likeliness of it being a straight copy, although very omminent on first sight, is quite unlikely.

Then again, you never know when it is plagiarism, and when it is not. To ask that question yourself, I found a blog post that went out for the hunt of these sad examples.

It might make you wonder, and it puts me into a constant fear of it ever happening at Geyrhalter Design.

The California Community Foundation, one of California’s Largest and Most Active Philanthropic Organizations, reached out to us to play an integral role in a large rebranding effort that nicely becomes one of our prime examples of what we call ‘brand atmospheres’. We just finished the last touches on the new Identity and will, in the months to come, roll it out over the entire spectrum of the foundations’ visual communications. You will see the outcome on our site, but until then I want to present the new Identity to you and share a bit of light onto the concept behind the visual:

Incorporating the new tag line ‘Building the Future of Los Angeles’, the new Identity and corporate design system repositions the foundation as pioneering new solutions to social problems thus creating positive change in L.A.

The Identity design represents an upward-thrusting structure conveying both boldness and stature. The 5 light rays breaking out of the conventional structure are a metaphor for the foundation’s priority areas and the innovative ways in which the foundation addresses root causes of L.A.’s biggest challenges. With the use of green, the analogy of a wave, and a solely positive upwards movement, the mark makes an energetic symbol for positive action.

You can compare our new creative effort to the current, and soon to be old, logo on their site.

As an interesting side note I learned that the old logo has been created by the same designer(s) who designed the Tree People’s logo, and at around the same time, which seems peculiar to me. But then again maybe it’s just me who sees the similarities, and maybe the whole story is just a myth.