Wacom's Icky New Logo
I'm not saying the old Wacom logo was anything to write home about, but their new logo, some sort of prolapsed alien anemone, is just bizarre. The text treatment is fine, I guess, but I don't understand what the icon does to describe a company that makes pen-based graphics input devices, except to say "Using a Wacom tablet—even if you're the manufacturer—is no guarantee of artistic acumen."
That Wacky Wacom [Brand New via Ad Goodness via Monoscope]
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"Wacom: we've totally mastered simple gradients, dude."
"Our new logo features 5 Capital City Goofball noses in a luscious bouquet whose terse symmetry echoes the values of Wacom. The colors represent a sense of calm, nature and technology in perfect harmony. Pensive green, curious yellow, daring blue, rambunctious purple and that other color too. The outward thrust of the Goofball noses shows our commitment to improvement."
It resembles the Om-killing machines from Fantastic Planet.
I'd prefer you be a little more careful about throwing around the word "icky".
Wait till you see it animated on the website. It brings it to a new level of ugly.
I showed this to a friend of mine who does a bit of design work, this was his response...
"I could do that in 5 min in Illustrator. To show what tools not to use in illustrator."
I'm pretty sure it's one of those spinning lights they used to have in clubs and now are relegated to the carnival. I agree with Devo - once this things is animated, its going to take off, perhaps literally?
I disagree, IMO you've missed the point. Yes, they've "mastered simple gradients" as one poster puts it sarcastically. The logo does indeed evoke basic computer graphic techniques.
Pray tell, what's Wacom business again? Oh yeah, making tools for computer graphics. Duh.
Thousands of companies make tools for computer graphics, Anonymous Snark, but Wacom's business is selling pressure-sensitive tablets that let you draw and paint as if you were using brushes and pens on paper. Shouldn't their logo reflect that instead of using primitive trumpet shapes?
At the very least, it's a little baffling that a company making tools for art and design would choose a logo with gradients that don't make any visual sense. Where's the light coming from? Your face?
I disagree, but mostly because I bought a ring for my wife with the same colored fungi motif back in an island, Greece. So, it's cool with me.
I too was confused by this new logo, then I saw it... (at least it's my interpretation, who knows if that's what the artist intended)... They are supposed to be looking down on various pens with color'd tops. Wacom makes pens with "tilt technology" so these are pens at different angles looking down. I'd hate to see what this looks like in black and white in a newspaper ad. Not saying it's a great logo, but I think I "get it" anyway.
Apparently, Wacom is owned by the Moonies. Rev. Sun Yung Moon of the Unification Church.
Maybe it's too easy to criticize Wolff Olins after infamous London 2012 logo, but I really can't see the point of Wacom's rebranding.
There is a certain attempt to break away from corporate feel of previous logo, but result is too cheesy.
Typography is the best part of new logo, but I can't call it neither exceptional nor outstanding - it is typical techy font that looks contemporary for this decade, but who knows how soon it will be dated?
The "color thing" is completely disgusting. It has awkward and static forms, and these gradients... I'm not a purist and I understand that with the rise of new media gradients and 3D-effects become more suitable for some identities, but the gradients here have unnatural look, like somebody's first attempt after discovering gradient button in Photoshop or Illustrator.
I feel that WO designers had good intentions but failed to convey Wacom's message.