New Mobile Provider Blows into Canada

WIND, the first new mobile service provider to enter the Canadian market in ten years, launched in Toronto and Calgary in December of 2009 and was expected to provide fresh competition in the Canadian wireless market by offering low-cost plans and services as an alternative to Bell Mobility, Telus and Rogers Wireless which have dominated the Canadian market for decades. Canadians have long complained of high cellphone bills in comparison to much of the world and many consumers were expecting WIND to make a dent in mobile service prices by introducing low rates and forcing competitors to follow suit, but it doesn’t seem like to be the case so far.

Existing Greek and Italian versions of WIND.

WIND is a European import, already operating in Greece and Italy under the same brand, although with some subtle differences. The Greek iteration uses a softer font and brighter colors and the Italian version has a wet floor effect applied to it. The Canadian version isn’t too inspiring: Overall, the WIND logo lacks the light, soft, dynamic feel the name brings to mind. The type is extremely dull and devoid of any life, especially in combination with the soft, organic “W” worm. The combination of the two is jarring. I don’t see anything salvageable or remotely memorable. What I do see: a shrugging neighbour behind a concrete fence, a fancy moustache, a pigeon cloaca. The happy squiggly character reminds me of a dot-com era start-up. At smaller applications, the logo loses any readability (just take a look at the favicon on the WIND Mobile site. All three versions use slightly different fonts and squiggles. There does not seem to be any coherent global branding effort — the regional logos are treated like red-headed stepchildren.

And what is it with spelling WIND in all caps? Brands that shout are my pet peeve, especially if the name is not a good fit for the tone.

On a brighter note, branding elements introduced in the Canadian identity are indicative of a more professional attempt to coherently brand WIND by Toronto-based AmoebaCorp. The choice of Gotham Rounded and a pastel colour palette seem like a good fit with the whimsical illustrations chosen for the brand.

Mikey Richardson, co-creative director and partner at AmoebaCorp says that the purpose behind the look of Wind Mobile was to be fun, friendly, optimistic and honest. “We wanted to do something really fresh and human,” he says. “[We] wanted to do something counter to Rogers and Bell, which are really clinical and slick and void of human emotion.” AmoebaCorp decided to work with a palette of 16 colours for the project to further differentiate from the competitors’ blue-or-red, one-colour formats. “Wind Mobile is supposed to be talking to the diversity of Canadians,” he says. “So we decided to go with many colours, which can create problems because it is difficult to manage something that big. We spent a lot of time creating a graphic standards manual, which lays down how the colours are used and how they interact together.”

The WIND brand still has a long way to go before it’s mature enough to play with other competitors in the Canadian mobile sandbox. Most Canadians just want another mobile competitor and won’t pay as much attention to the logo as long as there is a lesser of the evils. But as time goes on and WIND is no longer an underdog in the mobile brand game, Globalive will need to step up and move past the poor WIND identity. As they don’t seem to take the WIND brand too seriously, hopefully there is a greater emphasis on their service quality.

Thanks to Andrew Hladkyj for the tip.

Cordon’s comment is:

I hate to be crude, but that thanks to the name “WIND,” all I see in that logo is a bum.. and the hole… :[

On Jan.26.2010 at 06:12 AM

Gianluca Savini’s comment is:

Since I am a former Wind user in Italy, better if our friends in Canada do not expect too much from WInd, the lousiest telco in Italy by far.

On Jan.26.2010 at 06:14 AM

Gabriele’s comment is:

I’m from Italy. Here wind image is really… cheap. Photoshop bevels and commercial with different comedians, just look at the website (www.wind.it).

I like this new look, but the logo seems a bad color palette conversion.

On Jan.26.2010 at 06:51 AM

Larry W’s comment is:

Eh… its one of those things where you want to say something about it but you really can’t. On a personal level, I don’t like it, but in terms of the product, it makes sense. Not a big fan of the brand illustration, either, but again, it isn’t exactly my style and it works.

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:10 AM

Jonsel’s comment is:

This wind manages to both suck and blow.

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:25 AM

Brandon Lewis’s comment is:

The web site branding elements bear a string resemblance to Apple’s old iLife ‘05 and iWork ‘05 boxes.

http://goyaboy.org/blog/images/iwork.gif
http://goyaboy.org/blog/images/ilife.gif

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:26 AM

Huntley Brinkley’s comment is:

It’s interesting to compare this work to that of Towers Watson (posted a few days ago.) Both have the swiggly “w” as their major mark -but what a huge difference in execution!

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:28 AM

ScottyM’s comment is:

The branding elements are Web 2.0 … don’t even have to go to the site and can imagine that identity sitting on a Wordpress-inspired backbone.

That said, it works. Totally differentiates from the typical telcos. The logo deserves nary a mention here. Not one word.

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:31 AM

Adam Bestwick’s comment is:

Bravo! to AmoebaCorp for introducing a style and direction to WIND as a brand.
They were given a pile-of-pants to work with, but despite this, they have developed their collateral with sensitivity and a disciplined control.

As for the WIND identity there’s absolutely nothing positive you can say.
The icon is just awful and, If you disrespect your own brand to such an extent that it ‘morphs’ into different fonts and colours dependent on which country you’re in, how are the consumers meant to respect it as a provider and a serious brand??

A great case study for Year 1’s of ‘what not-to-do’.

I bet AmoebaCorp hated putting that ‘seagull-thing’ anywhere near their work.

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:33 AM

Neil Thompson’s comment is:

Personally, I like the logo. Not so keen on the ‘red-headed stepchildren’ reference though. I’m still bemused why people see that as an acceptable casual form of abuse… I doubt we’d ever see ‘black stepchild’ as an alternative in polite society.

On Jan.26.2010 at 07:34 AM

Lester’s comment is:

Well, as a ginger, that didn’t bother me one bit, Neil.

I love the illustrations. They DO remind me a bit of the style of iLife ‘05 and iWork ‘05—a style that was totally unfitting of Apple, but beautiful nonetheless. And damnit Cordon, you totally got that image in my head now too. Especially with the brownish-mustard colored dot.

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:00 AM

John Leschinski’s comment is:

I bet you get upset when someone says they’ve been gyped then?

I’m not a fan of any of this branding exercise. While they are trying so hard to be human they lack any meaning.

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:04 AM

John McCollum’s comment is:

Breaking wind, I’d say. The logo is filthy. Dirty, dirty boys.

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:21 AM

damon’s comment is:

amoeba corp does amazing work, and I think this stuff is successful as well. I live in toronto and have seen a lot more than what is shown here around town. The tone is nice, and it is most certainly a refreshing departure from the aforementioned red and blue monochromatic formats.

as for the logo, not sure what the hell is going on there. I absolutely hate when people make letters into little people. like putting a dot above a Y that becomes a cheering person, puke.

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:23 AM

Dennis’s comment is:

It looks like either an upside down seagull or a mustache with a pimple. It looks like the logo on a pre-paid phone that a man buys so he can call his mistress on the down low (a man smarter than Tiger Woods, that is).

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:37 AM

Dennis Van Staalduinen’s comment is:

As a Canadian I was hoping our new carrier would be both more customer-friendly and more brand-savvy to provide a counterpoint to the other megaliths we currently have to deal with, The fact that they are this tone-deaf to branding nuances doesn’t bode well for their ability to “speak human” on the customer service side.

I like the artwork Amoeba has come up with. It’s playful. Kinda wonky, But the “conversation” theme doesn’t play nicely with the “WIND” name.

Any other Canadians miss the early days of the ClearNet brand? Now there was a clear promise, a solid name, and a design theme with staying power,

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:39 AM

Nick Irwin’s comment is:

reminds me of the illustrations on The Shins Chutes Too Narrow cover, the logo seems like a complete disconnect

On Jan.26.2010 at 09:24 AM

Leonidas’s comment is:

Hello to everyone.

In comparison to the Italian and Canadian
Wind logos I have to say that the Greek is
far better. Better font & better color-combination.

In Greece, Wind doesn’t communicate with
these great illustrations, but has made
some pretty memorable TV ads (most with a comic touch)
over the years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FpfCcnmx3I

This is the tv ad, introducing Wind to the Greek
public… The copyline was I WANT MORE.

(the video reads: I want to discover…more// I want to create…more //I want to choose… more//I want to be loved…more//I want to have fun…more//I want to dream more)

On Jan.26.2010 at 09:25 AM

Ivan’s comment is:

“Wordpress-inspired backbone”? What’s wrong with Wordpress platform? Is it a synonym for mediocrity or what? It’s now an industry standard and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

On Jan.26.2010 at 09:45 AM

Christopher Meeks’s comment is:

The illustrations created after the fact are really awesome. That is the only redeeming quality to the brand, and I almost feel bad that they were wasted on a brand that clearly doesn’t appreciate them.

Let’s be frank, people. The logo itself is horribly boring and poorly executed.

On Jan.26.2010 at 10:32 AM

Nancy’s comment is:

Ok, they are called ‘Wind’,
so they need to avoid any association with a common source of wind, the bum, at all costs!

So what do the do, create a logo that looks like two cheeks and an a-hole.

Hilarious!

On Jan.26.2010 at 10:55 AM

aaron’s comment is:

Looks so much better online here then on the subway.
I’ve been mocking it on my way home from school for a few weeks now.

On Jan.26.2010 at 11:12 AM

aaron’s comment is:

Looks so much better online here then on the subway.
I’ve been mocking it on my way home from school for a few weeks now.

And at least the illustrations are better then the *shudder* koodo banners

On Jan.26.2010 at 11:15 AM

Pax’s comment is:

They are actually called Gloabalive Communications outside of Ontario province, and I am guessing they will get themselves renamed there as well soon enough.

Hmm … just noticed something odd. They are using Gotham Rounded on their website even though H&FJ explicitly prohibits any online font embedding.

On Jan.26.2010 at 11:16 AM

shiftklick’s comment is:

Smells funny in here. Who did the dirty deed? The next person who speaks is the person who reeks.

On Jan.26.2010 at 11:16 AM

Aaron Smith’s comment is:

As a Canadian, it’s refreshing to see a new mobile face. Unfortunately, I must pass Wind or pass on Wind as a company proposing a 3 year relationship. I’d rather date the younger, more attractive classmate – Koodo (http://koodomobile.com), if price point tickles me fancy.

Koodo’s to AmoebaCorp for getting over the wacky-wavy-inflatable-tube-doll and giving us what we deserve, beauty on the outside.

On Jan.26.2010 at 12:08 PM

Jacob’s comment is:

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the logo is awful but the overall design is wonderful.

Everything about the logo is wrong, right down to the uninspiring, desaturated colours.

On Jan.26.2010 at 12:12 PM

Carlo’s comment is:

On Jan.26.2010 at 12:16 PM

elisa’s comment is:

I agree with you, the typeface is doing nothing for this logo.

On Jan.26.2010 at 02:26 PM

MSGDS’s comment is:

Very uninspiring and there is nothing positive that can be said about this logo.

On Jan.26.2010 at 02:33 PM

Req’s comment is:

The only experience of seeing WIND is on Roma’s soccer team shirt and it fits superbly, compared to lots of logos on soccer shirts that insist on keeping their own clashing colours. This fits nicely on a nice jersey so I have nice thoughts of WIND’s identity.

Seeing it on it’s own though about is something quite different. It’s quite harsh for what it’s supposed to be saying.

On Jan.26.2010 at 03:03 PM

Mr. Kim’s comment is:

I’m from Toronto and I despise Bell and Rogers with a passion. They represent everything a corporation should not be; greedy, indifferent, intolerant. As such, I will gladly bash them any and every chance I get. So this message is for WIND and others who are looking to enter this market:

Give us a stable, easy-to-use connection, a service that is simple not complex, action not promises, and don’t gouge my wallet… then you’ve got a customer for life!

Take it away John Mayer:

Me and all my friends
We’re all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There’s no way we ever could

Now we see everything that’s going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don’t have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It’s hard to beat the system
When we’re standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That’s why we’re waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It’s not that we don’t care,
We just know that the fight ain’t fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we’re still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

On Jan.26.2010 at 03:30 PM

Simon Coyle’s comment is:

The supporting work by Amoebacorp is really nice. The logo is bland and forgettable, perfect for the Canadian telecommunications industry.

On Jan.26.2010 at 03:39 PM

Tony Vlismas’s comment is:

Personally, I like the Canadian ID and the consistency of assets in their collateral, but I think it looks a little too juvenile. This is the brand that is suppose to “rescue” us from Rogers, TELUS, and Bell, yet their brand is akin to more of their low-end counterparts (Fido, Koodo, and Virgin/Solo, respectively). I think they needed a more polished approach.

On Jan.26.2010 at 06:31 PM

phanyxx’s comment is:

“This wind manages to both suck and blow”

On Jan.26.2010 at 08:10 PM

buy r4 ’s comment is:

Sorry but Wind’s value is very weak, Calgary is barely covered in service, and as soon as you are outside of the home zone you pay $0.25 cents a min, that is brutal. Not too many people can use this type of service. Data rates outside of the home zone are expensive. This launch seems rushed, they are having trouble activating people, adding features, and coverage is very weak. Not a real competitor on any level, and they are going to have loads of unhappy customers.

On Jan.26.2010 at 09:59 PM

Pablo Cabistani’s comment is:

First time I see that the logo is the worst part of a visual identity.

On Jan.27.2010 at 09:02 AM

Jonathan Hoefler’s comment is:

Hi Pax,

Thanks for the heads-up, though I don’t think they’re embedding our fonts — looks like some kind of image replacement, rather than @font-face. Unless you’ve found a page I haven’t?

Jonathan Hoefler

On Jan.27.2010 at 11:30 AM

San Antonio Employment Lawyers’s comment is:

New logo is pretty great, especially the different color options.

On Jan.27.2010 at 02:50 PM

Brian Son’s comment is:

The new logo is terrible. It looks as though two separate firms worked on it: one for the logo and one for the branding/illustrations. Then they had a giant meeting and unveiled the two pieces together! To see how close they could get!

The illustrations are great, with the rounded type (T-Mobile much?) conveys the whimsical aspect they wanted. But then comes the logo with sharp corners and a squiggly line and you wonder what went wrong.

On Jan.27.2010 at 04:28 PM

Chuck Spidell’s comment is:

Finally a non-Web 2.0 logo!

On Jan.28.2010 at 03:52 AM

Ron Nadel’s comment is:

In my taste, the logo lacks inspiration. The Identity, on the other hand, is really good. Colors are brilliant!

On Jan.28.2010 at 04:00 PM

hurricane news’s comment is:

I attempted to make an argument like yours once, but I did not get a particularly positive response. I hope your thoughts on this topic turns out with more success than mine did. Keep up the good work.

On Jan.30.2010 at 12:03 PM

family vacation’s comment is:

I do not sometimes comment on blogs but I had to stop by and tell you thanks for posting this, I fully agree and with a little luck folks will understand your argument.

On Jan.30.2010 at 01:05 PM

Marcelo’s comment is:

AmoebaCorp did a nice work with the limitations of the initial logo. It looks much better than the others.

On Jan.30.2010 at 08:31 PM

Ben Weeks’s comment is:

The copywriting and color system in the outdoor advertising is excellent. Wind’s website asks visitors to submit their complaints-a wise way to stay on the (generally angry-as Canada is one of the most expensive places for cellphone users in the world) pulse of the market.

On Feb.01.2010 at 07:07 PM

Betterman’s comment is:

Oh look at this;
http://www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/WALB/Projekte/Landschaftskultur/GaertenUndParks/1217247136_0/grafik

On Feb.02.2010 at 05:59 AM

plebdoat’s comment is:

@Nancy

I’m with you…

I was going to get into a critique about why I did or didn’t like this, but I just can’t get past the fact that the icon above the word-mark is an abstraction of an ass hanging over the word WIND. Seems like a no brain-er to avoid something like this in the strategy meeting.

On Feb.03.2010 at 02:28 PM

Curtis’s comment is:

The logo totally looks like a butt… or someone leaning over to sniff the wordmark. Either way, the logo sucks and the colours are gross.

On May.26.2010 at 02:57 PM

Cinda Sanderfur’s comment is:

One of Tiger’s ex gf is claiming that he is the father of her son LoL Seems like this Tiger saga is not over yet

On Jul.13.2010 at 10:57 AM