Another year. Another bajillion dollars invested in branding. Some of it was good. Some of it was terrible. But in an era when every rando with a Twitter account has become a vocal critic, be sure, every rebrand was a risk of some sort.
In 2018, we saw brands invest more in their own custom typefaces to seep deeper into our consciousness. We watched as a new blue wave of politicians attempted to take back the country with Hollywood panache. And we also saw a lot of sans serif branding. I mean, a lot. Here’s a look back at some of the best and worst projects from 2018.
The best
The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign
Uber
[Image: Uber]The branding firm Wolff Olins translated the visual manspread that was “U B E R” into an approachable, friendly-looking brand identity. Since Uber’s brand equity was saddled under countless terrible stories, and its circuit board app icon made no sense, it was a smart play that repaints the company as more accessible, and readies the company for its inevitable IPO.
Toys “R” Us
[Image: Lippincott]The permanent closure of Toys “R” Us stores was one of the most unfortunate losses in retail this year. But before the toy giant was chopped up and sold by a holding company, it had tapped the branding agency Lippincott to reimagine its brand. And it was perfect, refreshing the company’s quirky old wordmark as a series of 3D games. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day. Read our exclusive on it, and try not to get a tear in your eye.
The Weather Channel
[Image: The Weather Channel]We all know the Weather Channel for its Local on the 8s and using the same U.S. map that every other weather broadcaster uses to tell us if we should bring an umbrella. But this year, the channel took some risks and decided to reinvent its brand as an immersive augmented reality weather experience. Think: tornadoes ripping down studio walls, floods floating cars away, and fires flashing across California foothills. It was so wild, it worked. And at a time when weather is becoming more extreme–and those extreme weather events are becoming more common–it was also an important public service. The drama is real.
Avengers: Infinity War
Disney bought Marvel in 2009 and has proceeded to turn it into atremendously lucrative, ever-expanding brand. Nowhere was that more apparent than with the release ofAvengers: Infinity Warthis year. Ten years and 18 movies in the making, it mixed characters, stories, typefaces, editing, marketing, and soundtracks into a single, giant slurry that may go down as the culmination of one of the greatest branding plays in history.Infinity Waralone grossed $2 billion worldwide. And of course, there’s a sequel coming in 2019. The ride may never end.The okay
American Express
American Express took 30 years to update its logo, and then hired the esteemed design firm Pentagramto do it. Pentagram proceeded to sharpen the letter forms, make the background solid blue, and cut the name to Am Ex. It was good, but safe. Perhaps it sets the stage for some more subversive updates down the line?Mailchimp
[Image: courtesy Mailchimp]No one can say Mailchimp played it safe moving by beyond its mid-’00s monkey branding for a sketched, frazzled, bohemian lifestyle look that seems inspired by what happens when a Matisse knockoff artist tries to to draw a New Yorker cartoon. At the same time, the email marketing platform kept its chimp logo. So now the brand is left in a weird middle place, between two disparate brand sensibilities. I kind of wish they’d just murdered the monkey logo and given us some brand brief like, “We realized the chimp was in all of us all along!” In any case, Mailchimp attempted to try something other than another copy-and-pasted tech brand, which should count for something.
The worst
BE BEST
Coca-Cola
Blanding
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