Logos matter.
The late Milton Glaser, the designer behind the world famous I ❤️ NY logo, once quipped, “A logo is the point of entry to the brand.” Indeed.
The most successful companies get it right. The logo they choose is appropriate for their product, their company ethos, and their industry.
So as a visual designer who gets enamored by logos I came across a clothing company based here in Southern California named VUORI. For all of you who are not familair with the brand, it’s a contemporary line of well designed, great fitting athleisure for both men and women. I have bought a few pieces. I wore them and loved them. Comfortable, well fitting and well priced. Their minimalist approach and great fit kept me coming back for more, however the logo on all of it kept pushing me away. I was puzzled and confused. How does a company with such a clean website, with great photography and great clothes has not nurtured their logo over the years?
I get it, when you first start off you try to go with something that you feel is appropriate. And that’s probably what happened here. But as years go by, and the focus of your brand becomes narrower, you MUST revaluate your branding and so forth. I personally avoid logo laden clothes to begin with, but every time I would go into the VUORI store I would seek out the simplest and non branded merchandise I could find.
Their logo is not utterly offensive — they use one of my favorite classic fonts for their wordmark, but just because you use a nice font, does not necessarily mean that it’s the right font for your company. And I never understood the fuzzy color gradient. It looks good in concept but does not function well in real life application.
So as any designer who gets bothered enough by something, we try to change it or redesign it and then envision it coming to life, not just for ourselves but for all our fellow design obsessed humans.
After delving a little deeper into the VUORI ecosystem, and going through their website and product line up, I came up with what I believe, is a more appropriate brand identity that retains the company’s DNA without changing it or alienating their current clientele.
As you can see below, I am not reinventing the wheel, I am simply showing what evolution could look like for a brand with so much potential.
There are plenty of new brands out there that have the opposite problem — Great branding with a crappy product.
VUORI is in the position to have it all.
Christos Joannides is the creative director of FLAT 6 CONCEPTS , a branding agency based in Los Angeles.
