Here’s the presentation/discussion guide for the session I gave at MinneBar this morning. The participants helped generate a great conversation on the topic. Congrats to the MinneBar organizers for another stellar event!

Credit: Miss Karen

More about BaconCamp SF.

I have a love/hate relationship with Caribou Coffee. Followers of my Foursquare activity will find this surprising since I check into their locations frequently. While not my favorite corporate cup of joe, I often fall prey to the convenience of tripping over their stores throughout my day (most of their 500 locations are in Minnesota).

Don’t get me wrong, there are some things I really enjoy about the Caribou experience: the fireplaces, their Monday Happens campaign ($1 coffee on Mondays), and the company’s line of reusable knitted and fabric cup sleeves to name a few. So I was naturally quite interested when they announced their new logo and branding direction on March 1.

The world’s second-largest coffee retailer (a very distant second to Starbucks, but still impressive) is based here in the Twin Cities and stayed close to home for guidance on their new branding effort. Minneapolis ad agency Colle+McVoy is responsible for the makeover which ironically aims to make the chain feel less regional. Brandweek describes it as an attempt to “bolster its appeal as a branded coffee company by playing down the ski lodge imagery and, yes, the caribou, with a sweeping rebranding.”

The local press had mixed first impressions. The Star Tribune called the new logo “sublime” while City Pages thought it resembled one of those hidden image puzzlers found in Psychology textbooks. “Is it a vase or two lovers kissing? Is it a rose or the profile of a woman? It it a tree or an infant?” They also saw a bulbous-nosed proboscis monkey within the design, which doesn’t add much to the discussion but I just think is awesome.

My musings inspired fellow designer, @sparkyfirepants, to write an excellent post about why rebranding and a new logo won’t fix their problems. The design itself was nicely summed up by underconsideration.com, “The caribou itself is not as convincing and it’s trying too hard to carry meaning: Its body is a coffee bean! The antlers make a ‘C’! The shield is like a park sign! The angle of the jump signifies the expected revenue of 2010! Okay, I made that last one up, but in trying to do too many things with the icon, it becomes a little bit of an amorphous jumble.”

I asked folks on Twitter and Facebook for their feedback and got a range of opinions with distinct trend toward the negative.

Logos are tricky things. People get VERY attached to them and change is largely treated with skepticism. Just think back to the ruckus Pepsi caused a year ago when they changed theirs. Any brand going down this path should tread lightly. At the very least, the process should be thoughtful and clearly explained. I believe the execution of the rollout phase can tell a lot about the brand itself. Most importantly, it reveals how they really feel about their customers.

What does this move say about Caribou?

To me, it says they’re not really committed to doing this in a coordinated fashion. While the new look was unveiled March 1 on cups, napkins, cardboard sleeves and some signage, the website won’t change until April 1. Many other in-store updates reportedly won’t be complete until early 2011. I was at a Caribou on Monday and barely noticed anything different. The fancy napkins were nowhere to be found, the few new signs featured tiny new logos and the staff was lackluster when asked about the change. Worst of all, my coffee came in a cup with the old logo and a cardboard sleeve with the new one.

I realize Caribou locations are franchises and it may be difficult to coordinate something of this size easily. Wasn’t it at least worth the effort to try? When Starbucks roll out their red holiday cups each Fall, it happens at every location at at the same time. Overnight. Of course there is waste involved in replacing the current inventory of Caribou cups, but why make the cup one of the key elements of the rollout if every store doesn’t feature the new ones proudly? Especially when so few other elements even include the new logo.

Why wait a month for the website to reflect the new brand? It’s the easiest way easier to sync a central element up with the new look and certainly cheaper and faster than updating major store elements. Here’s their homepage on March 1. Less than a third of the page is devoted to the new brand. There’s simply an image without any explanation.

Clicking the image leads you to a brief page with the only explanation on the site of the new brand. There is little about the motivation behind the change or expectations of when it will be fully rolled out. They relied on news stories to fill in the gaps. There seemed to be no intention of leading the online conversation or even doing much to support it. What a missed opportunity.

Now to be fair, they did update their Twitter background and avatar. Although they didn’t answer my tweet asking why the new logo wasn’t more prominent on their website. I’m not bitter about that at all. Really.

The other thing that troubles me about the way they describe the new brand is the emphasis on a broader-based, new direction. They are essentially telling their existing customers that the woodsy-lodge feel that attracted them for the last 17 years is no longer desirable. It’s too regional now that they want to grow aggressively. They simply want new customers who are attracted to a more contemporary logo and less homey decor. It’s no surprise some long-time fans are upset. Caribou is moving on without them.

What do I think of the new brand? I thought you’d never ask.

I’ve had a few days to mull this over now and have some random thoughts on the subject. Overall I like the feel, the colors, the style of the hand-lettered typography but have trouble with the execution. There are some readability issues with certain letters in “Caribou,” the sans-serif font used for “COFFEE” is too formal for me and the light blue color is really hard to read against the brown cardboard sleeve. The horizontal version of the logo feels unbalanced (especially with the color/contrast issue on the sleeve), although I like the vertical orientation.

I love the handwritten note elements on the other branded pieces, but it feels tacked on and disconnected to the main logo.

I’m not a fan of the caribou either. It’s too simplistic and icon and a little obvious for my taste. If I want to find hidden pictures I’ll buy a copy of Highlights. They make you work for it.

There’s something about the antler that bothers me too. The way it’s sitting on his head reminds me of Max in “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”

In any event, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?

I’ve always been passionate about efforts to reduce or repair the damage we’re doing to the planet. Since having children, this issue has gotten personal. I want to do all I can to make their future better. Aside from supporting groups and candidates  working to make a difference, I’ve struggled with how to make more of an impact. That’s when I started thinking about the unique role design could play this battle.

Thoughtful design can convey complex ideas and act as a powerful agent for change. While hardly a new concept, we are entering a time when grassroots design activism could produce some very interesting results. Coupled with the immediacy of social media, it seems that the potential to create change is within everyone’s reach.

Here are some folks leading the charge:

Living Climate Change was launched last month by IDEO, the design and innovation firm. The goal is “to expand the dialogue about our environment beyond policy positions and national sacrifice, and instead explore new possibilities” utilizing what they call “Design Thinking.”

The TckTckTck campaign has created a great tool for learning the stories behind the human face of climate change. It’s called the Climate Orb and it is an animated interactive tool housing first-hand stories searchable by country, keyword and timeframe.

The Environmental Defense Fund designed this infographic detailing how carbon caps can actually create jobs. Then they made it available online for reporters, editors, and bloggers around the country to use.

Of course, this is just a sampling. There are more great examples popping up everyday. Please share some of your favorites in the comments.

Flickr photo by me.

My contribution for the first ever Ignite Minneapolis. Thanks to videographer Brian Stemmler for making me look good.

The Ignite challenge: Any topic, 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide, 5 minutes total.  This was so much fun. It helped to be talking about a subject I’m passionate about. Remember, friends don’t let friends use bad fonts.

If you’re interested, you can find my presentation slides here. I’ve also set up a Flickr group of the same name to collect even more great photos of bad fonts in action.

I’ve been working with Bryan Person on a logo for the Social Media Breakfast series.  It will be customized with each chapter’s city name as well as used for the national web site.

As you may know, I’ve been active in the Minneapolis/St. Paul SMB chapter for the last year or so and its been quite a thrill working with Bryan on this project.

Bryan has posted both potential logos on the Social Media Breakfast blog. Please share your feedback in the comments of that post to help them choose the final logo. They’ll be taking comments through Wednesday, May 6.

Thanks for your help!

Working on a meatier post about the event. Until then, you can enjoy the video. Here are my presentation slides:

I’m still not quite buying this, but the word is out that Sci Fi Channel is planning to change their name to SyFy channel by the end of the month. There is already a backlash brewing with a handful of Facebook  protest groups popping up and lots of chatter on Twitter.

Aside from the obvious similarity to social network naming conventions (i.e removing those annoying vowels), I’m taking a wait-and-see attitude regarding the news. However,  I really like the preview of the new logo (from tvweek.com).

Their logo has undergone some major revisions over the years. I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at its development.

Circa 2002

Original logo (mid 90s)

I’d love to hear what do you think of the move to rebrand or the direction of the new look.

I was really pleased to see my Twitter background featured on Twitter Backgrounds Gallery this week. Thanks for the votes and comments.

I’m excited that more sites like this are popping up. Anything to help inspire folks to make their backgrounds more unique is definitely a good thing.