Behind the Scenes of April Fools 2010

\"I know this doesn't fit the mold for your site,\" wrote Matt Stevens to me on March 12, \"but thought you might be interested. A little rebrand I did for fun.\" I was amused by the exercise but, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't in any enthusiastic rush to post it on Brand New so, like dozens of other e-mails we receive for the site, I left it unanswered. As April Fools approached, I panicked that I didn't have anything prepared — this just goes to show you how tight an operation we run around here. After debating some lame ideas, I remembered Matt's Dunkin' Donuts post and realized it had all the ingredients of a convincing April Fools: A well-known brand, an established visual system, and the potential that it could indeed change at any moment. I asked Matt if his original post had gotten a lot of hits, just to make sure that it hadn't been picked up by a bunch of blogs and ruin the surprise. Luckily for us, it hadn't. And, boy, has that changed overnight! I am eternally grateful to Matt for letting us use his hard work for our and your amusement. And, as many made it clear in the comments, I thought the work that went into it was pretty amazing and even as I put it all together to give it a formal critique I was amazed at how well the whole identity came together under his vision. So, once more, thanks Matt, and thanks everyone for playing along another year.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners