BY Armin

Extreme Makeover: Chimp Edition

In 2001, Ben Chestnut, co-founder of the e-mail marketing service MailChimp, designed their application’s logo in a bit of a rush… and in Macromedia Fireworks. The result is actually quite commendable for having been done in a web image-editing application, but unless this was a weird version of design Fear Factor I would never ever venture to design a logo in Fireworks — as Ben explains in this really great brandtrospecive (branding + introspective), his file was anything but expandable, nor fit to print. Working with HicksDesign, designers of the Firefox logo, MailChimp is about to deploy a new monkey on its application and web site.

I highly encourage visiting (and reading) the link to Ben’s full explanation of the redesign, as it’s rare to get such a complete stream of thoughts about the direction a client is looking to take their design in. In this case, specifically, I think it helps to ground the decision for an illustrated mascot over a more abstract icon, which on the surface could be seen as a weird change. I really liked the old chimp, it had a certain innocence and friendliness to it that is hard to replicate (more than just for print applications) and the new, more realistic chimp is attractive but I’m not sure it captures the same sentiment. As a logo the old one also worked better, it occupied a square, it could be cropped, rotated, placed on a color background, etc. The new chimp has to be shown in full, putting it in different colors will likely be a pain because of the shadow on the feet (unless the logo files are provided in layers so that the shadow can multiply), and reproducing it in print will still be tricky as some of the subtle gradations that look great on screen are hard to reproduce with digital and 4-color-printing.

Nonetheless, given the direction the logo was to be taken in, I very much like the new chimp itself. I love how you can sense he is in a rush even with his stubby legs so close to the ground and the look of determination is endearing. Plus, chimps with funny hats are always winners in my book.

\n\nIn 2001, Ben Chestnut, co-founder of the e-mail marketing service MailChimp, designed their application's logo in a bit of a rush… and in Macromedia Fireworks. The result is actually quite commendable for having been done in a web image-editing application, but unless this was a weird version of design Fear Factor I would never ever venture to design a logo in Fireworks — as Ben explains in this really great brandtrospecive (branding + introspective), his file was anything but expandable, nor fit to print. Working with HicksDesign, designers of the Firefox logo, MailChimp is about to deploy a new monkey on its application and web site.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners