Opinion BY Armin

Is that a Human in your Tree, or are you just Happy to see me?

Established in 1982 from the merger of Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CG) and Insurance Company of North America (INA), Cigna (formerly all caps, CIGNA) is a Fortune 500, global health service company with 30,000 employees around the world and 65 million “customer relationships.” Cigna is repositioning its business model to become a retailer and provide health insurance directly to individuals, while still providing their service to employers and organizations. Launched this past September, a new campaign, “GO YOU”, has been created by Boston, MA-based Hill Holiday and a new logo designed by BrandSinger and Jerry Kuyper Partners.

Design exploration was driven by Cigna’s desire to signal change and to communicate the new focus both on the individual, and on Cigna’s growing global presence. The new symbol establishes a bright, friendly palette of blue, green and orange. The “tree of life” idea (and equity) are retained, conveying strength and security, but the tree is now dominated by a human figure in a universal posture of joyful well-being. The radiating leaves, Jerry notes, “reinforce the concept of achieving one’s full potential.” A touch of horizon is added, suggesting global scope. That’s a lot of content for one small image.
— Review and insight from Identityworks

The old logo, designed in 1993 by Lindon Leader at Landor and nicknamed the “Tree of Life”, was a nice early 1990s abstraction of a tree inside a funnily undulating square with a boringly corporate serif underneath. Quirky but with plenty of equity after 18 years. The new logo retains the tree and then adds a whole of bunch of visual clichés and annoyances. First there is the generic shapeless human being in the tree, then there is a swoosh behind it, then there is the cheesy friendly blue and green palette, and finally, there is some over-spaced boringly corporate sans-serif underneath. The one redeeming aspect of this logo, at least in execution, are the leaves on the tree. Those are nice. Other than that, this feels like a complete step backward in logo design: it’s old school in all the wrong ways. And, probably even less helpful to the new brand positioning, it is totally disconnected from the advertising.

National TV campaign spots by Hill Holiday.

The TV ads are quite good. Especially the second one with all the professionals in costumes. It’s smart, it looks edgy and contemporary and friendly all at the same time and like, indeed, it means to shift the way we think about getting healthcare on our own. The print ads are colorful and bold, with their own color palette and typography and deporting the logo in a single color to the faraway corner where, unfortunately, it deserves to be.

Thanks to Debbie Millman for first tip.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners