Absolutely unmacceptable Logo!

[Gare]

I am completely ashamed to admit that we evidently have a designer living in New York State who designed this, and a company that actually is using it. Okay, perhaps my incense is a tad on the hyperbolic side, but can you think of a more illegible design that mis-uses the trendy swash effect?





For most of us whose eye-to-brain functioning is normal, you probably need help decrypting this new logo. It's "Market 32". The owning company, Price Chopper, out of Schenectady, NY, wants to give the impression that the store chain is more "homes-y" and "traditional". In essence, they're painting the place with Pepperidge Farm PANTONE 465 UP...um, seriously, they put all their money into a new logo and haven't changed a stitch in the aisles, cashiers, and blah-blah.

I think, but am not use, that the "32" refers to the year the chain began.

Can anyone think of a better name to suggest "Honest goodness you set on the table", Christian values (), and a homestyle dis-ingenuousness that makes you want to good, old-fashioned smack the CEO?

How about a better choice of fonts and design for this sad logo?

Overly critical of my Shopping Experience, that we spend more than 50% of our income on,

Gare

[gwpriester]

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Reminds me of the ligatured to death new Metropolitan Museum of Art logo. What is it with you New Yorkers?

[mwenz]

The CEO did say that they desired to return to the "Central Market" name (which is what it had up into the 1970s) but that a chain in Texas had since used the Central Market name.

Guess they ran out of ideas at the board meeting...

Supposedly, it was mostly design in-house with consultation with a large marketing firm.

It's fugly. Ya cannot hit fugly with a stick and make it better. UnderConsideration had this to say:

The old logo — an evolution of the funny old-old logo — was pretty clear: it chopped costs with an axe and it had a real 'Merica color palette. The new logo, ayayay, what a damn mess. Its wannabe Whole Foods-organic-schmancy faux look fails so miserably it hurts. The broken MAR KET and its ensuing vertical ligature is obnoxious and the leafy 32 — for 1932, the year of the market's origin — is fairly ridiculous. The "BY PRICE CHOPPER" Clarendon-esque type is probably the only saving grace.

The re-branding is ok from one perspective. When the CEO was asked if the $300 million rebrand would affect prices, he said he "didn't think so." OK, he really said that there were no plans on raising prices to fund the store re-branding. Same thing, isn't it? So your budget won't be affected. Oops. Prices have gone up in the 1.5 years since, but surely that's just inflation at work. And surely this isn't an effort to stem the revenue losses since WholeFoods moved in...

Ok. Enough sarcasm. There are better ways than splitting the 'Market' moniker and splitting it with an (very) awkward '32'. The hard part will be not making it "WholeFoodsesque." The "32" isn't enough. I'll gladly play around today. Not much going on around here but Burn Day 2.

[Gare]

Simplify, simplify, simplify. What is it with you New Yorkers?

Um, New Yorkers have designers whose diversity ranges from immortal works to dreck, Other Gary! I remember when New West magazine was published by Clay Felker. Why didn't a Left Coaster come up with a better logo design than Right Cosster, New York City designer Herb Lubalin did?

Sorry; I presented the worst of the worst in New York. Please let me balance my original fair out:



Herb Lubalin was the Master of the Swash and Ligature.

How about the entire Pushpin Studio?

Milton Glaser, at age 250, still designs simple, appealing, classic logos and other promotional pieces such as the Bob Dylan poster, which is right up there in recognizability as the Campbell's Soup can Andy Warhol canonized. And Milton still teaches. How many designers are committed to the Doctor's Hippo: Do no harm.


This is "what it is" with New York designers, oG.

Park the attitude.

My Best,

A New York Designer

[Gare]

Mike, I thank you for that in-depth, provoking, and fairly inspiring analysis and co-op think about the failure of a larfe company to innovate.

Interestingly, they no only dumped their exclusive "Organic" section entirely and placed dubiously nutrional stuff such as Annie Chung seaweed stacks (sodium out the miso), and the ubiquitous, over-rated Snapple in the aisles where other marginally nutritious food resides. This is so they could expand their beer aisle to take up an entire aisle. Nice goin', Chopper Shopper! The sign hanging above Aisle 3 reads, "Jams, Jelly, Peanut butter, Pop-Tarts (I'm not joking), Cracker, cookies", while the sign above Aisle 1 reads, "Beer".

I imagine is was easy for the in-store designer to make the sign "Beer". Helvetica Condensed, easy peasy.

Seriously, if you're going to talk the talk, you'd better walk the walk.

You want a Crackerbarrel logo with an 80 year old with an apron and a straw boater? First, earn the logo, and then find a real designer to design the logo.

I'll be back this afternoon with an idea or two.

My To Do list has setting the trash cans out by the curb, before redesigning a multi-million dollar rebranding. That was initiated because the Wegman's food chain is kicking everyone else's butt in NY, and extending now down to the Carolinas. They have a knack for making nutrition-free food look natural and appetizing.



They'll probably stop at Publix Turf.

-g

[gwpriester]

Just giving you a bad time, OG. Mike Salisbury was probably the art director on New West if I am not mistaken and having worked with Mike I know that he generously borrowed from whoever and whomever. His philosophy was if it is good enough to be published it is good enough to be ripped off. Still in Mike's case the talent came from knowing from whom to borrow his inspiration.

[Gare]

Just giving you a bad time, OG.

Hey; right back atcha, OoG! :)

To tell the truth, when I was on Madison Avenue, we did almost all of our TV commercials in the 1970s outside of L.A.

West Meets East, so to speak. The directors were a lot more laid back than our Manhattan talent, but they know their...um, crap.

Oh, and I got to shop at Ralph's when we rented their parking lot once.

And I did get a chance to work with Bob Giraldi after he set fire to Michael Jackson's hair.

But as production costs soared, we shot on the Third coast. Orlando used to cost almost nothing. They were bound by city legislature to rent space at a brand new multi-million dollar facility designed for PBS whenever the studios weren't being used.

And just about every talented design house hates the new Met logo, Gary.

This should be the logo forever:




Those we the day, my friend...

[Gare]

This has a ways to go, I admit, but I think some positive elements are in place here. First, modify the name. If you're an expanding chain, the "born in '32" reference will become less and less meaningful. It's my opinion that even a logo, a store name, is a chance to advertise it. I thought of Village Market as a (somewhat saccharine) effort to localize and make the massive food chain look a little more personal/less big. Then it struck me that if you add "Your" to the store name, first, you'll get an effect similar to a successful local cab company named "Any Cab Company". People tell Information all the time to choose any cab company for them. And there was a local band once here named "Free Beer". This name on posters attracted audiences!

Abstract examples of food, almost icons. Perhaps icons would work better in this Icon Age?



American Uncial, Letterhead Fonts' BigTop.

-g

After-thought: I'll look up Upstate Market and Central Market to see if they're taken. Central New York is sometimes called Upstate by those who don't live in the Hudson Valley.