Why Companies Are 'Debranding'

in recent years some of the world's biggest companies have discarded depth and detail to dbrand burger king lost weight rolling stone found a cleaner edge vw shared its depth and shadow as did kia fizer nissan durex intel toyota and a host of other major brands even the munchable hero julius pringle had a flattening make under with shaved head dyed mustache dilated eyes and new pre-sprung eyebrows but what prompted this landslide of logo deep branding several interlocking forces are at work the most immediate of which is the pressure of mobile first design clients used to ask

can you make the logo bigger now the trick is to shrink an entire identity into a tiny digital box such pixel pressure usually means returning to the 2d look of old of course this 2d look was more or less the norm until computers took over and design inflation spiraled out of control anyone who has overfiltered an instagram sunset knows the seductive lure of visual excess and it's a seduction to which the pros are not immune the ability to round corners drop shadows customize gradients and create complex lighting effects can easily overpower the creative brief and

often does so many recently brands represent a return to sobriety after a spasm of software-rebetted intoxication there was also the question of maturity many of our biggest brands were born in a spirit of playful innocence that burst forth from their early branding take foursquare airbnb godaddy google as these companies grew and the stakes rose so their logos were obliged to mature from cartoonish to corporate flamboyant to flat wacky to bland illustrating the power of de-branding to professionalize and then there is fashion company graphics are as susceptible to trends as any other design as we see

in the stampede of fashion's little black dress logos heralded by issan laura in 2012 and followed by diane von furstenberg calvin klein berluti burberry and baumein yet the most intriguing element of the d branded logo is its potential to become a portal warner brothers didn't just strip back its theatrical golden guilt it unlocked a world of possibility that's increasingly vital to brands that span genres showcase variety or offer 31 flavors for all these reasons it seems likely that d branding will be with us for a while but who knows when the pendulum will swing and

the trend revert to detail complexity and personality after all once a critical mass is zagged against the prevailing zig the margin becomes mainstream the template flips and the dance begins afresh i'm ben shot the branding and advertising columnist for bloomberg opinion [Music]