The Countdown to W?

Progressive enterprises is to phase out it's Woolworths and Foodtown Supermarkets in New Zealand over the next five years (as per this article on stuff) and put in place a 'new generation Countdown'. So an update of the Countdown brand was in order.

So another change to a rounded bold humanist sans serif, which reminds me of the Kodak rebrand. The move away from the complementary red and green that sat horribly together to a white background is much better on everyone's eyes. And although the Kodak change felt, to me, that it was unresolved the Countdown rebrand sits a little better, although the 'n's seem to descend below the baseline optically.

Now onto the Logo mark at first glance I immediately remembered the Woolworths rebrand in Australia and now all I see is an Apple and a 'W', but I guess at a stretch you could say it was a 'c' and 'd'. I can't help but feel let down that they didn't use a new logo.

Thanks Louise for the help.

Fresher and Fruitier

If you haven't seen the Fresh'n Fruity fridges that seem to be in every Supermarket and in some supermarkets, staff handing out leaflets advertising Fresh'n Fuity.

Fresh ‘n Fruity Marketing Manager, Caroline Giller, says
“We are very excited to bring our new Fresh ’n Fruity Superfruits™ range to market which delivers a new taste sensation in the yoghurt category.” “The new range is a perfect partner to join the classic flavours we already have on offer, but uses unique fruits known to be high in antioxidants and pack a real punch in flavour and taste. We hope the new range will not only reinforce our valued customers’ loyalty but also generate new consumers to try Fresh’n Fruity.”

The redesign was done by Dow Design for Fonterra. Fonterra’s brief was to create a distinctive and memorable design to differentiate the Fresh’n Fruity brand from competitors.

‘The packaging had to have the personality and attractiveness that is the long established Fresh’n Fruity world" says Dow designer Andrew Sparrow.

The Dieline has plenty of images of the packaging change (and basically all the text I have).

Sunny Circle removal

While watching Canterbury (who are now Ranfurly Shield holders, thank-you DC) play in the Air New Zealand Cup, I noticed on the back of the players jersey's a blue block featuring Scenic Hotels. I immediately thought Scenic Circle Hotels, so I suppose the name change isn't so much of a big thing.

The removal of logos with gradients is some thing that I generally would condone, but when your logo is most recognisable with a circle then maybe a nod to the old, even though the 'circle' part has been removed from the name, would be good. The new is 'nice' but quite forgettable, losing much of it's uniqueness in the mark. I also do not like the changing of cases within a single word, to add "friendliness".

Same Change Hooker

LJ Hooker, an Australian founded Real Estate franchise that has now expanded through Australasia and Southern Asia. The founder Leslie Joesph Tingyou, changed his name to Hooker believing thinking it would be better for business. The name Hooker comes from Leslie Joseph's favourite position in Rugby, well according to Wikipedia. The company moving into New Zealand somewhere between 1996-98.

On the old logo, I never liked the the diagonal axis' on the 'O's or the legs of the 'K' and 'R'. The name LJ Hooker is unique enough that if the logo had a dramatic change, so the move from upper case serif typeface to the sans-serif type doesn't change the brand, but falls into line with their advertising using children, teddybears and this family feel. The use of lower case Sans-serif type has been a long running trend with many company changes

Thanks Matt for the Tip

Re-equiped

I know little about Hirequip, I have never had to hire anything that they supply so I am no expert in what they do. So here's what their site says verbatim;

"Welcome to the site of New Zealand’s leading hire company, Hirequip. Our nationwide network of hire branches makes hiring convenient and with over 50 years experience in the hire industry you’re guaranteed to receive quality advice, every time."

I think that they have pushed this into the wrong direction, the previous logo had aged a little poorly, but it is a sturdy logo that I feel fits more with the brand than the new logo does. Maybe the removal of the 'swooshes' around the HQ and slightly less bold typeface would have sufficed. I do like the shortened HireQuip to 'HQ' part of the previous logo, it gives me the notion that somebody thought that this was the Headquarters for hiring stuff. Period. I like that stance and it seems to follow the websites statement above.

UPDATE: The re-design was handled by FireBrand.

Institute 2.0

The designers institute of New Zealand or dinz for short, is the something designers should be atleast aware of, and probably should sign up to (I will when I get my next cheque...). All the changes to do with dinz, so far (minor CSS issues aside), I've been quite impressed. Pro Design looks much nicer, the website has had a makeover, but more importantly there are some very nice articles on there too. I may sound like I'm impartial with Design Assembly featuring in Pro Design's current issue, but they have made some nice changes.

The change away from the extended type is welcome, while the old was not at 'bing' proportions it was still a little off, I would have liked to see the new logo pushed more, but when dealing with a bunch of different designers it probably better be on the safe side = Helvetica.