In 1982 Tim Waterstone was fired from WH Smiths and went onto establish a specialist chain of book Store’s named Waterstones. By 1989 WH Smith took shares in the new book chain and eventually bought the whole company by 1993. 5 years later Waterstones was sold onto the HMV Group who are still the parent company today.

Walking through town, Waterstones stands out against the crowd. A classy and traditional identity encompassing the very stereotype of what a bookshop is or at least used to be. Its not highly modern but it doesn’t have to be because it’s a stylish and prestigious brand dealing in products of the same nature. So what brought on the re-brand?

As HMV found CD & DVD’s sales decline due to MP3 and E-commerce they re-branded as an entertainment retailer rather then a music outlet. Books are now suffering from the same scenerio. Possibly the reasoning behind the re-brand was an attempt to shift into the future.

Out with the old and in with the new, the “W” has gone from an uppercase serif font to a lowercase sans-serif with much more dead space to create a cleaner and contemporary identity. The W itself is now so plain that it looses much of its character, becoming a little mundane. Is it a “W” or something else (looks like the HMV logo upside down). Likewise the typeface is neither here or there leaving it a little confused.

Its clean and simple making it recognisable and easy to use but also just a little generic. To overcome the monotony and extend the brand imagery they’ve done the opposite with marketing literature using various reworked versions of the logo to help add some spice to the brand.

Every business needs to keep ahead of the times but you just can’t help feel nostalgic towards books, bookshops and the Waterstones brand. Since the beginning of time words have been written as fact or fiction, entertainment or reference making them timeless works of text symbolising the very identity that Waterstones previously projected. However! Waterstones.com is a different environment where the logo fits much better.

The intentions behind the re-brand are understandable and the re-design was inevitable. The logo itself is nice but has it lost its soul? Conforming to the rest of the high street shops and now merely blending in with the crowd its become a trend based generic logo for the modern day. In doing so its lost its individuality and represents today’s fashion which will undoubtedly be old tomorrow.

Maybe its a premonition that Waterstones have made and decided to act on early, an attempt to lead the crowd rather then follow it in terms of booksales, a chance to capture a new youth into its target audience with a stronger online presence backed by highstreet shops but will it work. I imagine that people will generally warm to the design as time goes by but at the same time I see this as the first of many re-brands that Waterstones will undertake in the fourth coming years.

Overall its a good design with good intentions but not the best design for Waterstones.

A few months back Martin Astley from the Openblue Team wanted to pursue a new personal venture to coincide with the current Openblue offerings. Having successfully traded on the stock market for many years, they worked out a way to use their own experiences to educate others with Traders-edge.co.uk.

Traders-edge provide personalised training courses to anyone who has the want and will to learn about stock trading, backed up by mental coaching techniques to turn you into a disciplined and successful trader.

The brand and identity was to encompass the the stock market bull’s and bears but the logo itself was to be reflective of a forward thinking, successful but yet still friendly company. After hours of reasearch we found that the industry itself has very few but solid icons such as the line graph. Although it seemed like a common idea it was one which got the point across quickly and easily.

However! We weren’t ging to be typical about it, the logo had to be modern and advanced. After several ideas and revisions we developed a dynamic arrow using two gradients to symbolise both the line graph, fluctuations in teh stock market and the capable success of learning with the traders edge. Fitted with a suitable font it has slight warmth to it without being over friendly.


After establishing the logo we went onto design a great website with subscription and membership facilities as well as stationery, flyers and PDF book cover to promote the business.

Take a look for yourself at www.traders-edge.co.uk

You’ve probably heard what I have to say about Microsoft. In fact you’re probably bored of me mentioning problems with Internet Explorer, Word and Frontpage. Despite their dysfunctional software we still use them day in and day out and there’s no arguing that they’ve made an impact on the way we work.

They introduced Office to our world which has become the industry standard all in one business tool. 20 years on their releasing the latest version, Office 2010 with a new look.

Microsoft design has never been trend setting. Their logos, packaging and websites are always pretty standard, clean cut but nothing exceptional unlike its adversaries and colleagues such as Apple or HP.

The logo for Office XP set the brand 10 years ago symbolizing 4 pieces to a puzzle, each section in a different colour representing the office apps (word, powerpoint, excel and Outlook) as well as keeping with the windows theme. It had a slight playfulness to it which was nice but also a little cheap.

The new logo was a big improvement. Cleaner, dynamic, and modern with a small step away from the puzzle pieces. Tying into the new web tools built into office, the logo represented a new facelift that the suite went through but overall it still wasn’t mind blowing. Alongside were new icons which were nice, functional although a little cryptic in some cases.

The 2010 logo shows another step forward in the building of a brand. Moving full circle from the puzzle it’s now a dynamic unified representation of the office suite rather then one that’s separated by shape and colour. The whole design has been meshed into one symbol intended to reflect a suite
that works on multiple levels. Arrows moving from space to space (app to app) creates an energetic and streamlined approach, symbolising a cohesive func
tionality but is it an improvement?

Yes it is but is it mind blowing? Not really. It’s a nice logo and again a step in the right direction but just not there yet. Its layed out well but a small clash is still present between the font style and new icon. Throwing out the old colour scheme was a brave and admired step and the new orange which replaces it is modern and vibrant but is it a bit too orange?

Where MS take a step forward with the logo they also take a huge step back with a new icon set. More cryptic then ever we have an array of colours and letters to remember. Inconsistent typography and a mixed style of buttons. Gradient upon gradient creates mess whilst colourful yet confusing sums it up.

The ideas behind the new identity are strong. A unified, userfriendly and modern approach for the suite but overall in terms of design it’s just pretty generic and quite possibly “unprofessional.”

3/5

Marketing a coaching business is not the easiest of tasks. Do you target the public or the corporates? Its a regular and common problem NLP coaches face and one that was solved visually with Infinity Associates. Having worked for corporations and starting up an array of businesses themselves, Chris & Adria Bannocks combined their creative yet disciplined skillsets for their new venture, Infinity Associates.

Chris and Adria wanted to develop an idea that they’d already put into place (Acuminous LTD), an early phase of an NLP and lifecoaching company which needed a new lease of life, a visual rebrand to match the new strategy behind the business. Based on a modern approach to training, coaching and personal development, it’s a a higher class of service, one which was original, professional yet appealed to both corporate and personal customers with a dynamic twist.

We began with the corporate identity in which Acuminous changed to Infinity Associates and then just to Infinity. Exploring ideas and themes we concluded whether the new company would have a dynamic and techy look or a warmer more friendlier approach.

After many revisions and concepts we designed the new logo along with a subrand to package a particular offering from Infinity, “Brainslim.” Following the logo we developed a matching website with modern functionality such as podcasts, downloads and blogs, all tied up into a CMS to control by the client.
The idea was to make a site which was useful to clients by offering them free advice on personal development. Within 6 weeks Conceptstore helped rebrand Acuminous into www.Inifnityassociates.co.uk.

Late last year an old client of ours came back for a new commission of work. With a wealth of experience he’s been knee deep in the recruitment industry for years and acquired a firm grip of the next trends in the world of recruitment.

After initial research and development we started the project back in January this year. We created the brand imagery and web design within a few weeks and then went onto develop the site. A month later after ironing out all the creases the site was finally ready for launch.

Within 6 months of conception RenewableEnergyJobs along with Green Leader (the renewable energy blog) is now the number 1 recruitment site in the renewable energy sector.

A big pat on the back for the owner Sam Newell, who marketed the site like a madman and saw the project through from concept to completetion. Overall, a great team effort from Sam and ourselves made the site possible.

A job Well done.