You might have heard that the Co-op has recently re-branded. So what? Companies do this all the time and we are forever listening to their self-absorbed announcements about the latest "brand identity" and how everything is different this time. Ordinary folk with any sense just unsubscribe from that nonsense.
This is true. Most rebrands have a desperately whiny, "look at me" quality that we wouldn't stand for in relations with our family and friends much less a company we buy the occasional thing from. But there is something different about the recent relaunch of the Co-op and the role that their identity plays in all of this. It's hard to articulate so bear with me while I muse on this and some of the connections it has made in my mind.
The most obvious thing to note about the new Co-op identity is that it's not entirely new. The logo is a subtle reboot of the old Co-op logo that dates back to the 1960s. The fact that it still looks modern is partly testament to a timeless quality that it has but also the fact that most rebrands of the last 20 years or so have been overthought and overexposed. In that context, simplicity and modesty seem like radical ideas.
Like most things in the meme-powered world of design, there is an underlying trend here as well. There has recently been a surge in nostalgia for some classic examples of visual identity from the past. The NASA Identity Manual evokes feelings of the golden age of space exploration, when Space Lab was the thing that captured our imaginations and before Reagan's Star Wars ruined space for everyone. The New York City Transport Authority Graphic Standards Manual was reissued thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign (if you have ever had the pleasure of visiting the London Transport Museum, you'll realise just what an incredible part visual identity plays in the development of our own transport system in London). Closer to home, GDS incorporated and updated the classic Transport typeface as a core part of the new GOV.UK design, winning a design of the year award to boot.
It's clear from these examples that simplicity matters in the creation of memorable and usable identities. What also matters is history. Visual identities can carry a whole weight of meaning and connection that are often hard to articulate beyond knowing them when you see it. This is what struck me when I heard about people crying at the recent Co-op AGM when the new look was unveiled. "We've got our Co-op back" was how someone was reported to have reacted. This is all perfectly understandable when you remember the turbulent period that the Co-op has been through recently and the power of that old, now new, logo to symbolise hope and renewal. The simplest of ideas, of bringing back an old identity, is a deep reaching metaphor for a business trying to re-establish itself and rediscover what once made it special.
As an aside to this, I'm pretty sure that Pentagram, the design agency that created the previous, more corporate identity for the Co-op, also created the logo of my current employer Thoughtworks along with their previous visual identity. Perhaps some ThoughtWorks archivists can correct me if I'm wrong about that.
I want to finish this rambling post off by mentioning a project I worked on that jumped into my head when I first read about the new Co-op identity. You may have heard of Tramchester, a mobile (best viewed on) web app that was built in Manchester several years ago. It is probably the most successful tech lab project to have come from Thoughtworks UK, having been one of the few that have ever made it into the hands of actual users in the form of a finished product. Tramchester rightly earned a lot of acclaim, most of it for the innovative technology choices that made it work.
I'd like to stake a small claim for the role of brand and identity in that success however and make right on something I should have wrote about years ago. The way Tramchester looks is nothing particularly special but is nonetheless a result of deliberate choices to try and incorporate some of the elements of successful identities that I have discussed above. In deciding on a logo, I was inspired by an amazing article I found that lovingly detailed all the typefaces used on Manchester buses since the 1960s. Falling in love with the work of designers from the past is the surest and shortest route to finding something that works in the present.
I am also a fan of Manchester and it's music (apart from The Smiths). As a massive New Order fan when I was young, I was also obsessed with the design of their record sleeves and the work of Peter Saville, Factory Records in-house designer and one time Creative Director of Manchester itself. The yellow and black colour scheme is inspired by the first piece of graphic design Saville did for Factory Records, a flyer promoting a club night in Manchester. So if you think there is something that "feels" Manchester in the design of Tramchester, now you know why. It's hard to put into words but it's there.