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.

\n\nUnderstanding 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.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners