I can appreciate the need to update one’s corporate image now and again — but, honestly, Holiday Inn is making a huge mistake with their abandonment of the funky cursive logo in favor of something that looks like every other mid-range hotel chain. Surely, if they needed to simplify their brand for a global market, they could have done so without losing a bit of their unique visual heritage.
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Some consultants probably got hold of them. Companies are equipped for ordinary stupidity but to throw away distinctive brand recognition usually requires a consultant.
The new logo made me think of the magazine “Highlights for Children”. Here’s their logo, from their website:
I hadn’t seen the Highlights logo in years, and now that I look at it, I can see that the new Holiday Inn logo is different. But the point still stands that the new Holiday Inn logo made me think of a different company; one would think the Holiday Inn people would want something a little more unique.
Someone did a handwriting analysis on their logo and told them it was 1) too feminine (very rounded tops of letters), 2) altogether too orderly and focused on reputation (regular character widths and relative balance between the upper and mid-range levels, that is, intellect and ego respectively, with little attention in the lower range, that is, id and sex), and 3) emotionally restrained (left-leaning).
STOP! What are called for here are pointed tops, more varied character widths, and left-leaning letters, which will make the entire chain seem much more masculine, ambitious, and go-getting! The only mistake they made was in not making the Y a sexy, downward-thrusting creature. But, all things considered, that may not be a bad thing for the business traveller away from home…