I read with sadness today that Duane Reade, New York city's largest drugstore chain, has decided to change its iconic red-and-blue logo to a new black-and-white number. Companies change logos all the time in an effort to either reinvent themselves or appear to be "changing with the times." I'm not exactly sure which of these two motivations Duane Reade is following, but I think they need to fire their graphic design firm.
Though I generally get annoyed by red and/or blue logos (since so many companies employ those two colors), the old DR was a nice, compact, recognizable design. The new icon, as critics in this article about the change note, is all over the place. Serif, sans-serif, upper case, lower case—it just feels amateur. The straight edge of the D in particular isn't doing anything for me. And as much as I appreciate the deviation from red and blue, is black really the color you want to represent your drug store?
To be sure, I'm not the only one feeling this way; a brief glance at the comment section for the aforementioned article, and you get the feeling that the powers that be at Duane Reade don't believe in focus groups. In any event, I give the new iteration a D-plus. ∞
I agree. Really, it's an amateur logo.
ReplyDeleteIf it's good enough for the Hulk, it's good enough for me. I'll continue to purchase my purple sweatpants there.
ReplyDelete