A logo redesign can give a company a new face, or in this 
case make them totally regret the face lift! The following article is showcasing 17 examples of epic fails of re-branding a logo.
A company's logo is probably one of the most important things, in some cases it can make or break your brand. Good qualities of a well designed logo are obvious really. Your logo should be simple yet memorable. You should be able to just glance at a logo and know just from memory what that logo applies too. Color and font choice are also as equally important. For a great/quick read about starting out creating a logo I would suggest reading over this.
AJC
Animal Planet
Avid
Capital One
Citroen
France
Goodwrench
HP
Martha Stewart
Mill Valley Film Festival
Packard Bell
Adobe Photoshop
Pizza Hut
Apple Quicktime
Upper Deck
WGN
Xerox
And that completes my list. I have picked these logos for obvious reasons. Whatever the reason may be: following bad design trends that just wont last, bad color choices, copying other logos, or just not keeping it simple and memorable!
Have a logo set you want added to the list? Disagree with a logo I have added to this article? Post a comment and let me know!
Adrian Balkwill is a web designer and a user interface designer for a software/web design company located in Canada, he is also the founder of Blogfullbliss. It is his goal to make Blogfullbliss the best source on the web for design/technology related articles and tutorials. About the Author
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Opa
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Nice! Great post...and yes them some ugly logos! Although I do like the photoshop logo re-design  |
cory ottenwess
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great post however, it would have been a little nice to have explanations on why you think they were failed re-brandings. Without justification, it seems more like just your opinion; how well do the logos do in market recognition compared to the originals? the differences between the original packard bell logo and the new are HUGE, but the GM/Goodwrench branding was meant to separate goodwrench from the GM counterparts, no? |
m2ew
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How can you like the photoshop redesign. @Opa It's like a ghetto version of someone trying to copy the new MS Office Icons. |
Allan
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99% Agree Most of those are quite awful - especially the WGN logo. WTF were they thinking. However, I quite like the new Upper Deck logo. |
Adrian
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:) Thanks for all the comments guys! Really appreciate it. @cory ottenwess I agree with you don't get me wrong, but most here are so obvious I felt a write up for each might be overkill. I will keep this in mind for my next post like this one though. Sorry about that! @Allan I am glad you liked my post, and yes WGN must be on some good weed or something!  I would have considered not putting the new Upper Deck logo on my list if the colors, and the weird angle were different. I do agree that its not the worst on this list though. I just cannot get over the nasty sketchy lines. |
Squarelogo
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Not all fails... I'd also like to hear your logic behind these "failed" re-brands. Were your opinions based only on appearance of the logo? There is a lot more behind a brand or re-brand than meets the eye. |
Squarelogo
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Also....RE: WGN The "new" WGN logo in your post is now their "old" logo, they have another new identity. Not a great new identity, but not as creepy as the one above. |
Adrian
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Sounds good Ok sure, I will start writing up a few "why they failed" to go along with some of them. which were you most interested in seeing? Can you link me to the new wgn logo? I had no idea....oops. I am glad to hear it's better though! That girl logo was creepy i agree. |
velda
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I'll say why they're bad! AJC: New logo looks like an Old HP logo wannabe Animal Planet: OK, I can see where they were trying to go with the alligator chops instead of an M, but it makes the whole thing hard to read, and the random font stretching accentuates the problem. AVID: Which button do I press? Capital One: Jumped on the swoosh trend Citroen: chrome is a nightmare to print, font is trendy. Screams Spec. France: KISS Goodwrench: Is that a power button? HP: Old logo had nice use of whitespace. New logo looks like a bad truncation of old logo wearing lipgloss SMART HAT RAW EST: Makes my eyes dizzy trying to read it. Mill Valley Film Festival: Old logo could have used a little help but the new one is much less memorable. Packard Bell: Oh my.. K, I'm out of batteries. I will say I don't think the upper deck logo is bad at all. Baseball cards often have that slapped on slanted look. |
Dan
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Thought Though I agree that some of the logos are ugly this would mean that it is a failed logo. Branding is sooo much deeper than the logo. Another note is often times what we as designers think is awful is successful in the market place. To be a real Fail you need to have some sort of gauge as to what makes these logos a fail. i.e. Marketing research to see the share drop. So my take away is Ugly? YES! Fail? Time will tell. Here is the Perfect example of fail: http://bit.ly/hdyv4 |
Adrian
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... I agree totally with what you are saying. We as designers know this, and understand the deeper meaning behind a logo. But when someone who knows nothing about design looks at a logo...they see a logo. Sad-but-true. Designing a successful logo is not hard, if you follow a handful or more simple rules. As we both know. Then again, I see your point. Only time will tell...But for some (like the ones above)you can see it coming a mile away. Thanks for commenting! |
Ryan Hanley
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I like the Photoshop Re-design I completely agree with the theme of your post. Branding is so key and many companies make huge mistakes either ignoring their brand or going over board. However I think Photoshop did a good with their Logo... Animal planet is by far the worst... thanks www.ryanhanley.com |
Joe Allam
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Don't fully agree.. I don't think you can compare things like the Photoshop logo as that "after" logo is a completely new product. I also think the typography of xerox is much better now too. However, I can sort of see about the logo, it is the same "world" style that a lot of logos have now and it will fade out in the future. |
Orosdesigns
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... How on earth is the Martha Stewart rebrand a fail?! MAYBE the logo isn't that strong but when its been applied to packaging, collateral, display signs, environmental signage and all that good stuff- IT. IS. BEAUTIFUL. It was even featured on the National AIGA website. Who chose that? What on earth were you thinking. |
Adrian
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... Martha Stewart's new logo was put on here by me because it is totally a fail. Text going in a circle, and the font. Bad, bad, bad. It is also very hard to read. Like velda pointed out, "SMART HAT RAW EST: Makes my eyes dizzy trying to read it." All I am saying is compair it to the old logo, and its a fail. The old logo is much stronger. |
Mark Ravnsmed Christensen
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almost agree... I totally love what they did on the AVID logo. I'ts so obvious and simple. Love it... Here is more: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/and_the_logo_played_on.php |
Adrian
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... Thanks for all the comments everyone! I was surprised how long it took for someone to post they really loved the avid logo. Its totally not the worst on this list, but earned it's place imo. Agree to disagree ftw!  You really hate the new at&t logo that much? Not much worse than the original. |
velda
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Oh and you forgot the pepsi logo Worst re-brand ever. http://www.suckatlife.com/imag...atlife.jpg |
isral duke
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Not All Bad i don't agree that these are all rebranding failures. The Avid logo is an example of a logo that fits better with the company / product. One must remember the audience of the logo, and, as most of the public will never see it o use it, Avid's choice is a great one. Finally, the Mill Valley Film Festival logo was likely redesigned to have lower production costs (1-colour vs 4-colour) but in form, it is less indicative of its representation. |
Adrian
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... I know what you mean. But look at it from the point of view that you have never heard of the company or seen the old logo. The first time I seen the logo I had no idea what it said. To me it said "up, down, and next."(what the shapes mean) |
Sean
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HP Logo @Adrian well man i got to say i like the HP rebrand alot. i find it a refreshing change! |
Adrian
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Really? You really think so? The old logo is so well done. Great use of negative space, looks great in any color and doesn't follow any trends. |
@Camilla411
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SVP Marketing Interesting discussion guys. Ugly logos (in terms of design) can actually be branding successes (in terms of shareholder equity). But you would think, especially with the Martha example, that they did focus groups with target buyer before they unleashed some of this nasty stuff? |
Vrushik
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partially agree ok the logoes have seem to gone worse simply cause they tried to go 3d and failed but i dont rekon citroen fail that 'catchy-er' then ever , although someone said something about printing, lol as long as it works.. (p.s how do i change my gravatar?) |
Vrushik
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one more thing the other reason is that theyve completly changed the design,such as goodwrench ive never heard of it before but the new logo has nuthing similar to the old logo , which is basically saying " i ended the other company now remember this logo" , lif anyone hass seen "aviva" theyve changed the name but kept the theme of the logo going so customers can easily recognise the company even by colour and style |
Marc Rapp
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End usage really makes a difference Some of these logos will work very well in a medium designed exclusively for animation and motion. As well as some working better in industrial design. I think there are some here, that are extremely intelligent. While others look lazy and not conceptually-driven at all. We shall see what the market thinks of them, as they are implemented. |
Axebitten
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... Interesting post, I actually don't dislike Citroen's rebranding, i'm not sure if it's rendered graphics or vector, sometimes it's hard to distinguish when applying loads of meshing and transparency to vectors, you can get a similar (better for printing and reproduction). We must not forget though, that sometimes the clients themselves make some strange requests and condition the designer's work imensely. |
Philippine Outsourcing
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... What we're these guys thinking hehehe  Great research on this one ... I was just surfing avid site a couple of hours ago and just had the same though ... |
A designer
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Re-brandig Maybe you want to start a re-branding in your blog logo. And man, take out the grass of the background. Not good for Readability. Tired of guys telling what is bad without justification. |
Adrian
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Tisk tisk And who are you? Someone who can talk but not even post his real name? Please don't waste my time, I am very busy. I have been designing for over 10 years. The grass is fine. Blogfullbliss is going under a MAJOR overhaul very soon actually. So just sit tight. |
Mangala
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... Hi This is very fine, but how can you say these without a proper justification regarding the failures of the new brands. I noticed that the pizza hut has changed back. I'm in the process of doing my thesis on rebranding of AVIVA insurance. How do you justify your finding please. |
Adrian
said:
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... When I posted this everyone was switching to gay glossy gradients, etc. I don't think they really need any explanation. Just look at them. Any seasoned brand designer would agree. |
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