For every kind
Reviewed by Emily Gosling
It’s often the launch of major charity rebrands that puts the gulf between how the design world views something, and how the rest of the world might, into sharp relief. Countless headlines abound bemoaning the £££millions ‘spent on a new logo’, as if that’s just about all there is to it, and now the children/animals/elderly etc will directly suffer as the result of, say, a font. The ‘my 11-year-old could have done better!’ brigade comes out in force (they didn’t though, did they, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t even invited to pitch for it).
Sadly, there’s still a fairly widespread misunderstanding – perpetuated in no small part by broadsheet and tabloid media alike – about not just what branding is, but what it does, or has the power to do. And likewise, charities have to invest in making more money for their cause: just as a commercial business needs a decent identity to be successful (i.e. profitable), a charity benefits financially from one too. The point is very often missed.
We saw all this stuff play out once again when the new RSPCA identity launched earlier this year. Created by JKR (yes, the ones that did the Burger King rebrand that nary a designer/design publication has stopped harping on about since 2021); the new RSPCA branding is the first major overhaul it’s had in more than 50 years.
Predictably, the Daily Mail dubbed the rebrand ‘wildly woke’ in a headline we won’t link to, while the Telegraph opted to put it into a frustratingly point-missing listicle titled ‘Four controversial charity rebrands – and why they backfired’.
However, the rebrand came about because reportedly, financial modelling suggested the charity ‘could lose significant income if no change was made’, and the RSPCA itself has said that the rebrand costs were ‘less than 1% of annual animal welfare operations’…
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Trulli delightful
Reviewed by Emily Gosling
Most people have likely never played the game ‘Italian Food or Italian Celebrity’; but trust me, it’s a pretty fun game – great for car/tube/bus journeys, or whiling away a bit of time after Christmas between gorging on something and watching Eastenders Omnibus.
The premise is simple: someone says a name, the others guess if it’s an Italian food, or an Italian celebrity. For instance: Gino Giennli (obv, Italian food, as anyone who was alive in the 90s will know from those infuriatingly catchy ‘tutti frutti, what a cutie!’ adverts); Bella Lasagne (celebrity, though arguably not really Italian, what with being a character from Welsh kids’ TV show, Fireman Sam); Gino D’Acampo (arguably both food and celebrity, thanks to his Asda-stocked range of cookware, ready meals, etc).
Now, finally, a new product has arrived that will get IFOIC players scratching their heads: olive oil brand Trulli Ulivi. Leaving inane games to one side, there’s no messing about when we say that the branding by London-based Here Design for the newly launched Trulli Ulivi – which is obviously the reason we’re really here – is truly gorgeous.
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Now on Brand Archive:
Drumroll by Ganda, 2024
Brand Archive is a research tool from the team behind BP&O. Discover a long history of corporate identity design, from the 1960s to present day. Using our custom built filter, discover individual assets from signage, to packaging to liveries, drawn from over 800 brands.
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