October 7, 2011 at 5:11 pm · Filed under ASIA, Case Study, Design Industry, India, Logo & Corporate Identity, Theory
Amrutanjan is an Indian healthcare company and are considered pioneers of pain and congestion management – since 1893.
Their TV ads with catchy, simple jingles of “It’s gone!” enthralled me as a child. The message was clear even to my pre-teenage mind : “If you apply Amrutanjan balm where it hurts, plain will be gone!”
I’m not going to dig into the re-branding per se and why they did it and the pros and cons of throwing away the “It’s Gone!” and bringing in “Pure Healthy Essence”. [ I don't know how the latter replaces the former but I'm sure there must have been a brief. ]
The old Amrutanjan logo that has been replaced looked like this :
Image from http://amrutanjansince1893.blogspot.com/
Compared to the new logo that has been released, I still prefer the old one. It is simple, it works in black and white, is easy to remember and focuses on the “Since 1893″, which, for a household brand like Amrutanjan, is a key factor in enabling trust. The solid shape, while not unique, accords it integrity, as does the solid color.
The old logo on Amrutanjan products used to look like this :
Image from http://www.drugneed.com/amrutanjan-health-care-amrutanjan-pain-balm25gm-amrutanjan-p-2256.html
Image from http://www.ayurveda-beauty-care.com/en/balms-oinments/ayurvedic-pain-balm-amrutanjan-strong-9-grams-p-762.html
As seen from the above, the application of the identity was simple and could be further built upon to differentiate the various sub brands. Moving on to the new identity – I dare you to believe this is real.
The Amrutanjan website explains it using the following image / description [ click for larger view ]:
To my eye, it seems that Amrutanjan, in an effort to get back the customers it has been losing, is trying to do only one thing here : attempting to position itself as a brand for young people by using colors and shapes that Amrutanjan thinks the young people like and identify with. Light greens and blues and shiny glass ball. I can understand this – their hearts are in the right places but their designer isn’t. The designer could have translated this need / part of the brief into a much better visual design. Instead, the logo designer has gone ahead and included all possible cliches in the worst visual representation possible.
While I might be able to make peace with the above explanation, I am unable to wrap my head around the typeface usage. Their “Know more about our identity” page explains : “Cursive typography to bring in modernity for easier brand recall and youth connect.” Unfortunately, just using a “cursive” typeface does not do much. The placement, the particular style of cursive selected, the size of the font, etc. are huge determinants of how the final logo will look and who the final identity will appeal to.
It does work on the level of easier brand recall though – because it is so badly executed.
The “shiny ball” is being called the symbol for nature’s essence. Probably because it has blue and green – which are supposed to represent the sky and the green earth and some yellow thrown in to maybe represent sunlight and the red to maybe represent blood. [ These are just guesses, I do not have access to the creative brief. ] Overall, the “shiny ball” ends up looking like a marble. But children in India no longer play the game of “kanchaas”. On a more practical note, if the company / logo designer believes that this approach with multiple colors and shades is feasible in terms of translation and application across all media, then they wouldn’t mind some shading in the logo [ this will become relevant below ].
This logo re-design engagement looks like one of those where the designer probably will not show the work in their portfolio because the client picked the bad design. Of course I am being generous but it could be a possible scenario because I have not been able to trace the agency / designer who did this.
Here’s what I would have done [ and this is without the brief, so please excuse the wild guesses ].
Since Amrutanjan – as a brand name – is very Indian and constitutes a meaning – approximately “something that is pure / like ‘amrut’” – I would have included that in my design brief. The additional “Pure Healthy Essence”, which avoidable, could also be represented by the same shapes / colors as used to represent the Amrutanjan name. I would have kept the design “Indian”.
To make the logo more friendly – with respect to the typeface – I would make it a lower case brand name “amrutanjan”.
For the logo, I would have kept the shape simple and the base colors simple as well and included shading to bring in the “modern” and “youthful” look that Amrutanjan was looking for. Something like this maybe. [ disclaimer : this is just an idea for the Amrutanjan logo - I have not been in communication with anyone at Amrutanjan or their branding agency. This design is representative of what could have been done. I haven't spent more than 30 minutes on the concept discovery and sketching and final design creation in Photoshop as opposed to my upto 30 working days timeline with multiple permutations and combinations after the concept and creative direction has been finalized. ]
I know this rendition is not perfect but this is only attempt number one and can only be taken forward when there is feedback forthcoming from the brand, which in this case is non-existent. For a brief description on keywords and ideas used to come up with the above : pure, health, essence, element, healing, nectar / amrit / amrut. The symbols elements used represent these keywords and represent Amrutanjan as a more modern brand / company than before and still keeps some of the trust / integrity / solid shapes and colors from the old logo. The typeface gives it an old-world / traditional look while maintaining a formal look without completely giving in to shapeless cursive employed earlier. As a healthcare brand, in my opinion, they should hang on to some form of formality.
Short blog post on the branding aspect can be read on Strategic Moves. I also believe that their ads on the company homepage of Amrutanjan are in bad taste [ there's a small square-boxed arrow on the bottom right of the shiny-ball-logo on the green Amazonian photo panel ]. Bordering on sexual connotation. Made me uncomfortable.
What do you think went wrong with the Amrutanjan logo re-design? Do you have inside information on how the project progressed?
Popularity: 2% [?]
September 29, 2011 at 10:30 pm · Filed under Artwork, ASIA, Download, Illustration, India, Personal, Photography, Redhu
Here’s a desktop and mobile phone wallpaper for your personal computers, your Android devices and your iPhones. Happy Diwali!
Diwali wallpaper : 640 x 960 for your iPhone 4
Diwali wallpaper : 960 x 800 for your Nexus One
Diwali wallpaper : 1024 x 768
Diwali wallpaper : 1280 x 960
Diwali wallpaper : 1440 x 900
Diwali wallpaper : 1920 x 1080
Diwali wallpaper : 2560 x 1600
The previous years’ Diwali Wallpapers are available here : 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006 and 2005.
A very happy, prosperous and successful year ahead to all my readers.
Please keep in mind that these are made available only for personal use on your desktops and phones. For commercial usage, please contact Naina on naina@aside.in to discuss usage and payment terms. The image used in the wallpaper has been shot by Naina.
Popularity: 1% [?]
September 13, 2011 at 11:13 pm · Filed under ASIA, Case Study, Design Industry, India, Logo & Corporate Identity, Projects, Redhu
This branding engagement was carried out way back in February 2010. It is going to be a long case study.
I bank with HDFC and when they got in touch with me for a logo design project for a new product that they were launching, I was excited. They were launching something called HDFC RED or HDFC Real Estate Destination – an online portal for searching real estate – in the most easy layman terms.
Apart from having the team fill-in my own logo design creative brief, I was also given other brand guidelines that had been pre-decided. Additional information, in the beginning, is always helpful.
I started with sketches based on keywords – the first stage of sketching is to determine whether the client and the logo designer are on the same page and the direction for the engagement can be set. [ click on the images below to view larger versions ]
One of the guidelines was that the HDFC RED logo should not be influenced by the parent brand’s logo. The team was working with another logo designer as well.
Before the project started, I met the team once in New Delhi and once in Bombay. Apart from these two meetings, all conversation and discussions around the engagement were carried out either over the phone or via email. After the above sketches were reviewed, I refined the direction for this phase and sent them the following.
[ the above image is clickable for a larger version ]
The team came back with more feedback and from the conversations, I was able to gather that in terms of the process methodology that I was using to design and develop the visual identity for the brand, the team was not comfortable with it / not used to it / was not sure where this was leading. I will admit that in my enthusiasm, I might have sent them more options than are typically “handlable”. All this is in retrospect and it WAS almost two years ago!
I sketched some more and sent them the following sketches / scribbles. [ click for a larger versions ]
This particular iteration yielded enthusiasm from the team and we were finally working with something that looked promising. Following color variations and small edits to the lion were made and sent to the client. Meanwhile, the HDFC RED website was also being developed and was influencing the decisions revolving around brand color – but only temporarily. Don’t miss the small changes in the shape of the Lion’s head.
This led to further placement / layout / color and shape iterations. Lots of them. Some typographic finishing and variations were also included in the logo drafts.
[ the above image is clickable for a larger version ]
At this stage, the team decided to ask me for an additional concept to work with – something fresh. Since this was in addition to what was on the contract, which we had signed in the beginning for this logo design engagement, a fresh contract was drawn up and a new deliverable was added. The team at HDFC RED was thoroughly professional and even though there seemed to be many decision-makers, I always interacted with just one touchpoint. Following are sketches and semi-finalized versions of the second concept using a different set of keywords.
[ the above image is clickable for a larger version ]
The above concept was related to “heart” and “housing” – I was aiming for a depiction of the various ventricles and auricles, the one below was related to “building bridges” between what the target audience needs and what HDFD RED aims to deliver.
Some more ideas that were presented :
And then there was a bunch of additional sketches based on a different concept altogether. By this time it was April 2010 – the engagement had started in February 2010 and the original estimate was for completion in 30 working days. Considering that I was working with a large organization, this was a better scenario than I had anticipated.
[ the above image is clickable for a larger version ]
[ the above image is clickable for a larger version ]
Following was the final shape / logo draft that was presented, after which, the client finalized a design that the other logo designer was working on.
The team still bought over the copyrights to the Lion design that we had worked on. You can see the logo designed by the other designer, on the HDFC RED website. This is one of my favorite logo design engagements since I started implementing my skills in the area of brand design – not only because I really like the Lion’s head logo design or that the team was excellent to work with – but mainly because I got to learn a lot. Working with a big brand puts things in perspective and you realize the possibilities of how an engagement can progress and where you can take it. And this is when I am not aware of what the client-side team really thinks / had to go through at their end.
Popularity: 1% [?]
September 1, 2011 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Case Study, Design Industry, India, Logo & Corporate Identity, Projects, Redhu
The brand naming engagement, which resulted in “Sigante” is detailed here.
Following is how the logo evolved. [ Having named the brand, the business element of real-estate had to be included in the visual identity, without making it seem like a run-of-the-mill real estate company ].
Below : The first sketch in this logo development process led to the final shape as well. Rare, but usually the first option can be literally path-breaking for developing the identity, even when it does not translate to the final logo. [ click on image for larger view ]
I was doodling when a conversation on Twitter, with Sumantra Ray aka @upjaaudimaag [ which literally translates to "a fertile brain" ] gave me a visual reference of the Burj Al Arab towers in Dubai, where, it is claimed that is you stand at the top, you can see so far away into the distance that the curvature of the earth is visible. I conveyed the same meaning to the client via the following graphic. [ click on image for larger view ]
Following are various options for typography, color combinations and shades, logo and brand name placement and final shape suggestions.
The decision to include the letter “S” was made because of higher identification probability in a cluttered marketplace. While there is no direct reference on “buildings” or “construction”, the shapes lend themselves to the idea.
The logo was presented in two placement formats, which the client will modify depending on display media.
An example of the business card, which is only a graphic representation, not the final design :
Having an exceptional client is as important to an identity design & development projects as it is to have an exceptional designer. Without Sahil’s professionalism and constant co-operation with the brief and the meetings and the innumerable emails, this projects would not have been accomplished as smoothly. Thanks Sahil and here’s to a hearing great things about Sigante! Cheers!
Popularity: 2% [?]
