BY Armin

Merger Leads to Extended Results

Two of the larger independent branding firms — Laga (formerly known as Lipson Alport Glass & Associates) and Desgrippes Gobé (sometimes known as d/g) — have merged to form Brandimage – Desgrippes Laga. Yes, that’s the full name. The new firm now counts with 300 employees across New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Leading the firm are Joël Desgrippes and Laga’s Jim Barrett, and there is no mention of what happened to Marc Gobé who was the more public face of d/g. Read on if you are ready for some press-releasing.

According to Barrett, Brandimage was selected as the name of the new company because it represents what the agency ultimately provides to its clients. “Through our exclusive Brand Vision approach we unite thinking and imagination, logic and emotion, and intent and outcome holistically to create a real brand strategy,” says Barrett. “Then we bring it to life through our Brand Presence process that takes different expressions of the brand across all points of consumer interaction. That is how we build strong brands and deliver rich emotional brand experiences to consumers.”
— Press Release [PDF]

“Brandimage draws its strength in the synthesis of European sensitivity with American innovation and the pioneering spirit of Asia.”
— Desgrippes

I always wondered what the combination of European sensitivity, American innovation, and Asia’s pioneering spirit would look like. And, unfortunately, now I know: Purple Helvetica Extended. Bland, clunky, pedestrian. I’m really, really surprised at how unsophisticated this new identity is; d/g has created some convincing designs (most notably for me, the Travelocity logo, and less notably the Payless logo) in the past and their wordmark was pretty decent and while I can’t picture anything that Laga has done in the past, I don’t remember being down right appalled by the result. I realize a lot of it is subjective opinion, but mine is that Helvetica Extended is a not a good typeface — and even if there is no such thing as a “bad typeface” and that it’s all in the use, well, this one doesn’t succeed at that either. In deep sleep dreaming with puppies and chocolate ice cream I can think of a dozen better typefaces for a wordmark designed in the year 2008: Scala, Section, Apex Sans, Whitney, Titling Gothic, Neutra 2, Soho Gothic, Underground Pro, Bau, Stag Sans, Gotham or, heck, Helvetica Medium.

An execution like this might be expected from a long-drawn process between a branding firm and the mythical client who assumedly has no design taste that waters everything down… but this result from a branding firm branding itself? Yikes. And I haven’t even talked about the star yet: It’s unnecessary, distracting and also poorly executed, there is no rhyme or reason to it. In contrast to Brand Union that used the term “brand” and created something daring, whether you liked it or not, Brandimage is a step backwards in naming and design for two firms that were doing a decent job in representing themselves with previously sophisticated wordmarks — Laga’s old logo was actually quite remarkable.

Reinventing a large branding firm from within should yield, at least, sophisticated results and, at best, defying results — surely not uninspired results.

\n\nTwo of the larger independent branding firms — Laga (formerly known as Lipson Alport Glass & Associates) and Desgrippes Gobé (sometimes known as d/g) — have merged to form Brandimage – Desgrippes Laga. Yes, that's the full name. The new firm now counts with 300 employees across New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Leading the firm are Joël Desgrippes and Laga's Jim Barrett, and there is no mention of what happened to Marc Gobé who was the more public face of d/g. Read on if you are ready for some press-releasing.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners