Opinion BY Armin

Tropicana Gets Salsa-ier

My experience of Las Vegas is limited to two business trips about two or three years ago, which included a self-guided tour of various hotels and casinos in broad daylight (i.e., somewhat depressing to be honest; not for the lack of fun but for the never-ending stream of people at the slot machines at 7:00 am). There are two kinds of casinos: The nostalgic ones that hold on to the gritty glory days of the 1960s, 70s and 80s like The Flamingo, Harrah’s and The Sands with all of their decor and graphics show their age; and then there are the new age casinos like Wynn, Rio and The Venetian, with completely tricked out decor and clean carpets. Tropicana, originally established in 1957 falls in the former group but will soon, in 2010, join the latter as it is completely renovated by its new owners in a “a hot Havana-like vibe.”

“The new company logo will serve as a roadmap for our entire transformation,” said company Chairman and CEO Alex Yemenidjian. “From the Havana inspired font to the lively color palette and unique arrangement; this image was designed to represent our vision of excitement, sensuality, rhythm and style.”

“The unveiling of this new company logo marks the beginning of a complete renovation and rebranding of the property with an energizing South Beach, Miami feel,” said Yemenidjian. “The new Tropicana Las Vegas will have a hot Havana-like vibe with pulsating music, live salsa dancers, bright tropical colors and a sizzling nightlife scene.”
— Press Release

Basically, what it means is that just like Caesars is restless in making you feel like you are in Rome, The Venetian like in Venice, and Rio like, well, in Rio, Tropicana will hit you over the head with Latin visual clichés to make you feel like you are at the utopian intersection of first world Miami Beach and third world Havana. When I first saw the new logo I couldn’t even picture what the old Tropicana logo looked like and I assumed it was some sort of script, not the diamond-shaped lettering that has reportedly gone unchanged since 1985. So the new logo makes more sense and is more topical (and, yes, tropical). Although the new logo looks hand-drawn I have the strong feeling it’s an out-of-the-box typeface since the two “a”s match even though the second one is a little smaller — a lettering artist would have made sure repeating letters are not exactly alike. But Las Vegas has never been known for its typographic finesse and I guess this is as good as it gets for a second tier casino. The logo might not be groundbreaking or that great, but at least there is more evident connection between name and execution.

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My experience of Las Vegas is limited to two business trips about two or three years ago, which included a self-guided tour of various hotels and casinos in broad daylight (i.e., somewhat depressing to be honest; not for the lack of fun but for the never-ending stream of people at the slot machines at 7:00 am). There are two kinds of casinos: The nostalgic ones that hold on to the gritty glory days of the 1960s, 70s and 80s like The Flamingo, Harrah's and The Sands with all of their decor and graphics show their age; and then there are the new age casinos like Wynn, Rio and The Venetian, with completely tricked out decor and clean carpets. Tropicana, originally established in 1957 falls in the former group but will soon, in 2010, join the latter as it is completely renovated by its new owners in a \"a hot Havana-like vibe.\"

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners