By @ladddesign

I finally had a chance to upload the screenshots I took last week on Internet Blackout/Strike Day (January 18, 2012), the massive online protest of the proposed SOPA/PIPA Legislation. It seems to have worked because Congress shelved the bills indefinitely two days later.

I was fascinating to see the range of creative solutions employed by sites participating in the protest. Many went with the standard black/shadow approach or played up the censorship angle. Some went minimal but others went wild like my personal favorite —  The Oatmeal’s incredible animated GIF which was featured on CNN and a bunch of other places.

What approach struck you the most? Did you take any action that day?

Pete Barry (@pjbfcp), a friend and UX specialist, is the brains behind it all. I was pleased to be involved as well, contributing some site and logo design work to project.

Twinkle Trail launched earlier this month and the list of displays is growing daily. Check it out to add your favorites or just plot the best route to experience the lights in your neck of the woods this holiday season.

Thanks to my session participants for making the experience so enjoyable. Congrats to the conference organizers for another great day of thought-provoking speakers. My presentation slide deck is below.

It’s Starbucks 40th anniversary this week. You may have noticed their Foursquare campaign aimed at spreading the love and giving away gift cards to a select number of folks who check in before Saturday. Their new branding also started appearing in stores this week.

I wrote about their new wordless logo a few months ago. Although I was skeptical then, I have to say I really like the look now that’s it’s being put into place. The cup design is so simple and clean. I never consciously thought about needing more white-space on my daily dose of caffeine, but it really makes a difference. Check out The Dieline for more of these mouthwatering packaging pics.

Has your location rolled out the new designs yet? What do you think?

Has the recent trail of carnage left in the wake of logo changes by Gap, Tropicana and Pepsi really led us here? Is the fear of consumer backlash so great that established brands now think such innocuous tweaks to their identity qualify as rebranding? Maybe the negative reception last year to the new Seattle’s Best Coffee logo (a Starbucks company holding) left them gun-shy.

This better-safe-than-sorry approach may backfire. While their senior creative manager gushes about the design details of the new logo on Starbucks blog, many of the post’s 100+ comments seem to be negative. “We improved composition, brought in more sophisticated stroke width and spacing and a smoother line flow. When it came to her – the Siren – we enhanced her form in subtle ways, smoothing her hair, refining her facial features, weighting the scales on her tail to bring the focus to her face. We enlisted the branding firm of Lippincott to help with these refinements, and give us a better global perspective on the entire identity system.”

It’s interesting to me that they seem to be emphasizing the evolution of the logo as much as the logo itself. The following official photo is available for download on their website and appeared with most of the coverage today.

Brand Autopsy has more details on the Starbucks logo through the years.

A. Engraving of a twin-tailed siren (15th century); B. First Starbucks logo (1971 – 1987); C. Il Giornale logo; D. Merging of Starbucks and Il Giornale (1987 – 1992); E. Redesigned Starbucks logo (1992 – 2010); F. Pike’s Place Roast logo (2008), a revival of the original which spawned it’s own controversy

Despite the anniversary tie-in, it’s an odd move to make. They had record profits last year and are hardly suffering consumer awareness problems. BNET’s Jim Edwards thinks there’s more to it. “It appears to be a mere evolution of the chain’s existing identity but is actually a representative of Starbucks’ abandonment of its core equity.” He calls it brand worsification, “what happens when a perfectly good brand with a solid record in selling, say, coffee, suddenly decides it can sell anything.”

It is true that the change is meant to represent the company’s expansion beyond coffee into a wider array of business lines and international markets. “What is really important here is an evolutionary refinement of the logo, which is a mirror image of the strategy,” said Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks. “This is not just, let’s wake up one day and change our logo.”

Terry Davenport, Starbucks svp of marketing, tells Adweek: “Obviously with a brand with such a huge profile as Starbucks, we approach this change very sensitively. We actually explored a very wide range of options, and when we stood back and looked from afar as well as looked close, we all unanimously gravitated toward the images that freed the siren from the word mark. We really took inspiration from companies like Nike where at one point they separated the word ‘Nike’ from the swoosh in their logo. This allows us to bring our identity to life anytime and anywhere.”

Perhaps the destiny of all mega-brand logos is a swoosh, a bullseye, an ‘M’, a shell, an apple with a bite out of it or whatever the hell Pepsi’s mark is. I’m still not convinced. I’ll keep drinking your coffee, Starbucks, but I have my eye on you.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments.

I’m not sure it’s all that, but I’m a sucker for typography-based logos. The more I look at it, the more I like it. While simple on the surface and bearing more than a passing resemblance to the copyright symbol, the new mark is certainly a bold departure from style of the network’s previous logos.

However, it’s dead on with the new visual direction they’ve introduced over the past few months. I’ve been appreciating the distinctive look of their show promos lately. They feature giant text, fun typeface parings in bright, saturated colors on simple black backgrounds cut together in quick snippets. They practically jump off my HDTV.

Some may take issue with the minimalism of the new logo. But as Punchline Magazine aptly predicts, “…it’s not going to create a massive uproar. Why? Because it’s not totally shitty.” The recent Gap Debacle (unveiling and quickly scrapping, their new logo) has probably given many a reason for caution when rebranding.

It’s also important to remember this is a logo for TV. It’s not meant to be static. It really comes to life in this video by Comedy Central highlighting how it will be used in promos in the coming months. I think it was a brilliant move to release this with the new logo. The context really helps us “get it.”

What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Canceling Comcast this moment? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Google celebrated John Lennon’s 70th birthday a little early (it’s tomorrow) with their first video doodle today. The animation is based one of Lennon’s hand-drawn self-portraits (included as the two O’s) and synced with a verse of Imagine. It’s been fun to watch Google experiment with different media in this space.

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

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