BY Armin
Essar gets a B+
Understanding the scope of global conglomerates sometimes escapes me, so allow me to copy-and-paste: “Essar [Group] is a diversified business corporation with a balanced portfolio of assets in the manufacturing and services sectors of Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports and Logistics, and Construction. Essar Global employs over 40,000 people across offices in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.” Got it? They are big. And it’s corporate identity work like this that really gets me going.
Not because it’s groundbreaking or necessarily the best design, but because it shows how it’s possible to evolve a brand without throwing all the equity overboard and still manage to infuse something new. Sometimes briefs call for complete redesigns and that’s groovy, but other times a good old fashioned logo exercise that doesn’t result in the over-explanation of gradients and spheres is just what the client needs. But enough about that.
The best part of the new logo is the evolution of those abstract maroon bars, using the same angles and structure, into a vibrant plus sign that punctuates the typography very nicely. I’m not as thrilled in the evolution of the typography though, I think the weight balance and the counterspaces of the old one were better resolved and that old “R” is to die for. The new one feels like a cross between the old one and Myriad. This is still better than a roundy, friendly, lowercase execution of course, so I shouldn’t complain too much.
Thanks to Hsu Cennatian for the tip.
DATE: Nov.28.2008
CATEGORY: Corporate 22 COMMENTS
Lucian E.’s comment is:
Looks like a medicine company...
On Nov.28.2008 at 07:08 AM
Gregorij von Rolkevic’s comment is:
there's an arrow in counterspace of the plus sign
On Nov.28.2008 at 08:03 AM
Anonymous’s comment is:
I'll give $5 to the first person who can find a new-age church with the same cross.
On Nov.28.2008 at 11:55 AM
Moeed’s comment is:
Nice little update.
Good job.
On Nov.28.2008 at 12:42 PM
Morgan Smail’s comment is:
Armin, I agree. well said
On Nov.28.2008 at 04:05 PM
GregT’s comment is:
It looks like it belongs on the side of a 707 in 1965. Fly Essar, the National Airline of Estonia.
That said, I like it.
On Nov.29.2008 at 12:46 AM
Neena’s comment is:
I think it's a good example of logo evolution.As a symbol though, a plus is not something unusual. But the whole idea of creating it from the maroon bars is what makes it interesting.
On Nov.29.2008 at 01:05 AM
Andrew Sabatier’s comment is:
The new brandmark has a lightness of touch which makes the old identity look disctinctly heavy-handed and old fashioned. This goes for the new type too. Much better, I think. It's more open and visually brighter. Besides the fact that it looks like an off the shelf typeface, the middle bar of the E looks too long. The brandmark looks fresher but the opportunity to create something more proprietary has been missed.
The rest of the brand transformation comes across as light-weight. The website is riddled with cliche, decoration and visual insensitivity. The brandmark on its own looks okay but in the context of the overall brand identity all the elements look weak. It won't be long before the brand looks tired again.
Does anyone know which consultancy is responsible for this work?
On Nov.29.2008 at 06:48 AM
Dale Campbell’s comment is:
I think it is a relatively decent update.
Maybe it was presented during the update and just not selected, but I would have like to have seen something similar to the icon which possibly had additional "arms", one which represented each of the service sectors.
It might have looked more like a star of course, but I would like to see that.
But overall, I do think this is very clean - it looks great on their website.
Keep well,
Dale
On Nov.29.2008 at 09:17 AM
koyo’s comment is:
Nice work, but the typography it's too common and bold I think.
On Nov.29.2008 at 11:31 AM
ChrisM70’s comment is:
@ Anonymous (comment #3):
Does this count? It was the first logo to come up on my Google search...
On Nov.30.2008 at 01:52 AM
ale’s comment is:
On Dec.01.2008 at 07:07 AM
David Sanchez’s comment is:
I sort of like the acronym-like-type-treatment however the "plus tangram" device feels familiar. which for me a is a redflag for brand overlaps and confusion. Might be just me Tangrams are unique. Cheers.
On Dec.01.2008 at 07:55 AM
K’s comment is:
With similar colours and type, I like this better.
On Dec.01.2008 at 09:15 PM
George - LogoDesign.org’s comment is:
I like it. They could have done alot worse, and anything is better then the old logo, not a fan of that one at all!
On Dec.02.2008 at 03:41 PM
jRod’s comment is:
to me, this is a bit of a lateral move. it needs a bit more punch, but not too much. maybe make the word mark alltel blue and accentuate the contrast between the orange and red little more...
On Dec.02.2008 at 04:18 PM
Chris Herron’s comment is:
The type is beautifully redrawn. It will plug less at small sizes.
Nice evolution of the mark as well.
On Dec.02.2008 at 04:25 PM
Philip Pietri’s comment is:
Is it just me or is that "E" a tad bit too isolated in the tracking?
On Dec.03.2008 at 08:12 AM
Mongoose’s comment is:
Mmm. Well, I do like the new plus, even though- as others have pointed out- it's very church-logo-y. It's preferable to and cleaner than that burgundy blob. With the font.. I like the A and R better, the E less, and the SS are a push.. I think the overall lighter touch is good, especially at smaller sizes.
Darn you Armin, but yeah, a B or B+.
On Dec.15.2008 at 11:22 PM
Ginn’s comment is:
they totally stole that cross thing from wim crowel. very unoriginal.
On Dec.18.2008 at 12:06 AM
Ginn’s comment is:
http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/0bce18700fdace8f9a3956c33ec53be2bda07c24_m.jpg
On Dec.18.2008 at 12:08 AM
Shauna ’s comment is:
Looks very generic, it's got very close to the same font as a lot of corporations and it really screams big faceless, soul-consuming corporation.
The orange is a nice change, at least they didn't go with red or blue.
On Mar.17.2009 at 05:42 PM
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