Logo Redesigns
This project was part of a nearly semester long assignment for my senior year branding class. The project was to find 10 logos that you thought were poorly designed, narrow it down to five, and redesign those five. The five logos I chose were Pathmark (a grocery store chain in the Northeast United States), KPMG (a multinational accounting company), Myoballs (a company offering foam massage/therapeutic products), St. Francois County (a county in Missouri), and Calendly (a communication platform for scheduling meetings)
Pathmark was unique among the redesigns. It was the only logo where I didn't use any of the 10 sketches I made for it. The red and blue in the original logo were replaced with green and orange to better represent the fresh produce the grocery chain offers.
Along with Pathmark, KPMG was my favorite logo to redesign. While the rectangles from the original were kept, I wanted them to flow along with the letters. I also added in the word 'international', as it's a part of the company's full name. The garish dark blue was replaced with a more soothing cyan, giving the logo a more elegant look.
The MyoBalls logo received a complete redesign after I did further research on the product. The product is used for joint and muscle relief. I felt the original logo did not convey the product's purpose. The original logo (which is no longer used) made it feel more like a heavy, intense workout tool. I went for a calming circle shape to represent the balls on the product. I used a different color of green, as the bright neon shade on the old logo was eye-searing and outdated.
While researching St. Francois County, Missouri, I discovered that the county has had an extensive history of lead mining, going all the way back to the 1700s. A few lead mining facilities are now parks in the county, so the history for them is still held in regard. This was something I felt could use to better define the county by tying the redesigned logo to its history. I went for a visual metaphor of a pickaxe chipping away at rock, represented by the shape of the county.
The Calendly redesign is admittedly my weakest logo redesign. To emphasize (and make a pun) on the company's mission, I concentrated on the design idea of 'saving the date' - hence the combination of a floppy disk and desk calendar.
The original logos are presented here. I found each of them to be poor for various reasons. 1). Calendly's main icon is supposed to be a 'C', but the blue blob in the center makes it look unidentifiable. 2). Pathmark's typeface is ugly and the color palette makes the company feel like a pharmacy instead of a grocery store. 3). KPMG's rectangles collide with the type and look distracting as a result. 4.) The 'o' in Myoballs doesn't read, creating an immature design gaffe. 5.) St. Francois looks like it was cobbled together in powerpoint in five minutes, and the icons supposed to represent the county make the seal look too busy.
After the logos were redesigned, we were assigned to make logo variants as part of a branding guide from the best logo you had designed. I chose Pathmark, and made a small handful of variants out of it.