branding
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Spyker switches gears, brands its own electronics
Spyker certainly won't go down as the first auto maker to dabble in consumer electronics, but it is making the leap in a big way. Rolling out, er, branding no fewer than three mobiles, five PMPs, and two USB flash drives, Spyker owners / fans now have lots of accessories to spend their wages on that are completely unrelated to their vehicle. Among the devices now available is a four-inch PMP with a rather antiquated design scheme, support for a slew of file formats, a 1.3-megapixel camera, FM tuner, AV input, and a promised boost of 10-horsepower (ahem) for €249 ($348). For the rest of the crew, be sure and hit the read link. [Warning: PDF read link][Via Autoblog]
AT&T logo going orange
Sheesh, as if the whole Cingular / AT&T / BellSouth / etc. mishmash hasn't been confusing enough for the general populace, here comes yet another change sure to make folks scratch their noggins a bit more. As AT&T looks to launch a new ad campaign that gloats about "Your Seamless World," the carrier will reportedly paint the blue and white globe orange as a "respectful nod to Cingular." Meanwhile, sign changers are thrilled about all the business pouring in from AT&T recently...[Via PhoneScoop]
Federal court sez NASCAR can prevent AT&T from branding Burton's ride
Oh, the drama. Just when you thought AT&T may be in the clear to re-brand Jeff Burton's ride, NASCAR throws a $100 million lawsuit in the carrier's direction, and now, a federal appeals court has reportedly "cleared the way" for NASCAR to claim victory. Purportedly, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals "said Monday in its order that AT&T lacks standing to challenge NASCAR's decision," and subsequently tossed out a lower court's ruling that prevented NASCAR from halting AT&T's plans. Sheesh, all this over a paint job.
Promotional Consideration: Small Waves
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.Instantly recognizable to any gamer worth their salt, Konami's bygone logo and its accompanying chime introduced more classic titles than we can count. When the familiar waves, slanted hourglasses, were retired in 2003, we felt their passing like the death of an old friend. We poured out liquor, fired 21 shots into the air from our Zappers, and bumped Master P's "I Miss My Homies" for days.Though the logo is now gone, it will certainly never be forgotten ...
Off the Grid: Franchises, classics, and homogeny
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. Oh Barnes & Noble, what happened to you? Less than a year ago, your halls were flush with all the greatest board games, in honor of National Games Week. You carried Carcassonne. You sold Settlers of Catan. You retailed Robo Rally. Now, any semblance of that respect for the non-digital medium has gone out the window. Pictured above, witness the horror that is the Barnes & Noble "board game" selection.The larger Barnes and Noble locations have always been more than happy to stock a few shelves with board games. The problem is that they're wary to stray from what will absolutely, positively sell. The result is an odd mix of familiar faces: Monopoly, Sorry!, Scrabble, Life, but also Spiderman, Transformers, Shrek, Friends, Grey's Anatomy. It's the worst kind of franchising: the kind that leads to an utter homogeny. It's clear that Barnes & Noble needs a gaming enema. Let's dig a little deeper to figure out hot to do it.
Linksys branding not dead after all
Well, it looks like Cisco CEO John Chambers spoke a little too soon last Friday when he said that the Linksys brand was going the way of the dodo -- Cisco is now saying that it will continue selling Linksys-branded products "in the near term," and that changes would only come "if and when these changes add value to our customers' decision making processes." In other words, Linksys ain't dead yet, but the axe is still mighty close.
Cisco axes Linksys branding
Linksys fanboys, if there even are such creatures, best get used to seeing a lot more Cisco and a lot less of their favorite brand, as Cisco CEO John Chambers recently announced at a European roundtable discussion (video after the jump) that Linksys products would now sport the Cisco name. Chambers was quoted as saying that "it would all come, over time, into a Cisco brand," and he also noted that the reason the Linksys name was kept alive was because "it was better known in the US than even Cisco was for the consumer." As the firm "goes globally," he concluded, there would be "little advantage" in keeping it around. Sayonara, dear Linksys.[Via TheInquirer]
False alarm: Orange's SPV branding here to stay
Disaster averted! Amid reports yesterday that Orange's well-traveled "SPV" smartphone branding was going the way of the dodo in favor HTC's newer, slicker badges, the carrier has stepped forward to deny the claim. Though its rendition of the HTC Touch won't be blessed with an SPV mark, it turns out there's a good reason: it's not considered a member of Orange's "Signature Series." Only Signature Series devices will be SPVs, and they may not always be HTC sourced. Got it?
Adobe's CS3 icon branding taken to the next level - the rest of your apps
The new branding Adobe conceived for the new CS3 suite hasn't quite caught on with everyone just yet. Some say the icons are too bland and boring, while others like my friend John decided to take Adobe's 'periodic table of apps' concept to the next level. Via some icons found at sites like InterfaceLIFT and designing a few of his own, John has completely element-ized his entire Dock. In fact, I couldn't fit a decent picture that could display all the icons in this post, so head over to a TUAW gallery pic to take in the entire work of art - or monstrosity - depending on which side of the fence you sit on. Knock yourselves out if you feel like guessing each app - I have the entire list, but it won't be easy to nail 'em all.[Update: For those that want a copy of most of these icons (some of them are home-made by my friend and not available publicly) as well as a few not shown here, TUAW reader David Mikula has quite a few available at his portfolio site, I Can't Fly. Thanks David!]
AT&T gets green flag to rebrand Burton's NASCAR ride
We know that there's another grueling week to survive between now and the Coca-Cola 600, but here's a NASCAR tidbit that will hopefully satisfy your Sunday desire for a little roundtrack action. AT&T has been given the green flag to rebrand Jeff Burton's (very orange) #31 race car after Judge Marvin H. Shoob of the US District Court, Northern District of Georgia, "granted AT&T's motion for preliminary injunction in its suit against NASCAR." It was noted that the decision gives AT&T "the immediate right to put its logos and brand marks" on the vehicle, and while we're not certain if we'll see a slightly new look come May 27th, we're sure it won't be long before the blue sphere makes its official debut.[Via RCRNews]
Halo 3 special edition Zune up for pre-order
Sony aren't the only cats that can leverage a little corporate synergy. Microsoft is using the might of the Halo brand, and the hype of the upcoming Halo 3, to give their Zune music device a little shove from the guy in the MJOLNIR armor. This Halo-themed Zune won't be available until June 15th, but if you've just got to give someone your money, it's up for pre-order now through game retailers Gamestop / EB Games, where it's an exclusive. $250 buys you a 30GB Zune loaded with Halo 3 goodies like music, videos, and artwork. That box oughta look great right between your $130 Legendary edition and life-size Master Chief plushie. %Gallery-3162%
Dopod branding to give way to HTC
So wait, why did Dopod just announce two Dopod-branded devices yesterday? Strange timing indeed, but HTC and Dopod have now let it be known that Dopod's name -- well-known only in Asia -- will be phased out in favor of that of its corporate parent. Ultimately, the move makes a lot of sense, allowing HTC to standardize on device self-branding for the entire world (it already sells devices under its own name in Europe and North America). Was just a matter of time, we reckon.[Via the::unwired]
Wii name celebrates first anniversary
It may seem like we've been talking about it forever, but it was just a year ago today that Nintendo revealed the console formerly known as the Revolution would henceforth be called the Wii. Immediate reactions ranged from derisive and disbelieving to defensive on the part of Nintendo itself, but by the time Nintendo's E3 press conference rolled around the initial furor had already subsided into a gentle buzz of Internet jokes.At the time, we confidently predicted that, eventually, "this new name will seem as nifty, familiar and as comfortable as that silly controller once it's all said and done." Well, were we right? Are you able to mention the Wii without snickering like a schoolgirl, or do you still feel vaguely uncomfortable talking about Nintendo's latest console. Lend us your opinion in the comments.[Thanks to vidGuy for the reminder]
What's in the name "video game"
Stephen Totilo's recent hour-long interview with Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Head Phil Harrison focused mainly on the past, present and future of the PlayStation systems and brand. But possibly the most interesting quote in the whole piece came at a point where Harrison waxed philosophical about the branding of the industry as a whole."I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as 'video games,'" Harrison told Totilo, echoing concerns aired last month by former ESA head Doug Lowenstein about the image of the term. With two industry luminaries bringing up the same issue in such a short time, we had to wonder: Is our industry being held back by its name?It's true that the word "game" in video game automatically makes some people think that our industry is devoted to nothing more than child's play, a claim that is pretty demonstrably false. Still, terms like "interactive entertainment" and "entertainment software" always struck us as a little too clunky and snobby-sounding for everyday use. Then again, terms like "graphic novel" and "cinema" probably sounded a little clunky before they came into common usage to describe the serious side of comics and movies, respectively.So we put the question to you, dear readers. Do video games need to be re-branded to erase their childish image? If so, what new term would you use to describe the industry?
T-Mobile launches "myFaves" service, new branding
T-Mobile is dead, long live T-Mobile. October 2006 is looking to mark some major changes for the States' fourth-largest carrier, dropping their corporate branding in favor of what you see above -- a decidedly... well, bubblier font, along with a fresh slogan, "Stick Together." The color scheme (pink, and lots of it) carries over, but the spokesperson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, does not. On a related note T-Mobile is taking the opportunity to launch their myFaves service (reminiscent of Alltel's My Circle) which lets customers place calls airtime-free to five folks of their choice, regardless of carrier. It seems a little sketch that they're restricting the use of myFaves to certain handsets with special firmware -- but with plans starting at $40, we suspect plenty of folks will be willing to pick up new hardware to get in on the action.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
T-Mobile on the cusp of an image overhaul?
We're putting this story together piecemeal, but we've collected enough intelligence at this point to venture a guess that T-Mobile will be launching a moderate rebranding effort in the next month or so. Headlining the evidence is, of course, news that they'll be dropping (or significantly scaling back) use of Catherine Zeta-Jones as their spokesperson. Exhibit B, then, is the almost Skype-like font seen on the shot of T-Mobile's spec sheet for the upcoming Motorola V3t, which looks distinctly unlike anything they're presently using. Finally, we've heard rumblings that their well-known slogan, "Get More," will be getting the boot before too long. All this comes at a time when T-Mobile's stealing a good deal of the American carrier spotlight, what with their impending launch of the hotly-anticipated Dash and UMA service; that's all well and good, but more importantly, who's going to replace Catherine?
Microsoft DAP said to be part of Xbox-branded product lineup
Some more details have leaked out about Microsoft's unannounced-but-well-known WiFi-enabled digital music player that shed some light on its role in Microsoft's overall home entertainment strategy -- though you'll still have to deal with that blurry pic for now. According to sources cited by The Seattle Times, the upcoming DAP is only one of several offerings that will be part of a larger lineup of Xbox-branded products, which will also include Microsoft's upcoming online media service -- the one that will dupe all your iTunes tracks for free -- and a dedicated software media player. Codenamed Project Argo, this initiative is said to be spearheaded by Xbox co-founder J Allard, and is rumored to support the so-called XNA toolkit for allowing developers to easily port games to multiple platforms -- possibly setting the stage for that heavily-rumored Xbox2Go. There's not too much here that we didn't already know, but it's becoming increasingly clear that Redmond has a definite battle plan for waging war against Apple and others in your living room (and pocket), and that the company is starting to make good on its promise of turning the 360 into a true digital hub.[Via Joystiq]
Nintendo invokes good names to defend a bad one [update 1]
Since announcing that they'd be renaming their new console from "Revolution" to "Wee," Nintendo's been busy explaining the name to press, often invoking other household names in the process. Here are some representative quotes: Perrin Kaplan to MTV News: "Many top companies have successfully used names or phrases that might seem odd at first blush: Virgin for an airline, Caterpillar for construction equipment, Yahoo! for Internet services, Naked for juice, Prius for a car, Napster for a Web site." Perrin Kaplan to IGN: "You think about Google being an unusual name. You think about Virgin Airlines. Amazon. Napster. All those. I think it's as unique as those. They aren't just unique, but loved names for places that we all know." Perrin Kaplan to CNN: "I'm sure people felt the same way when Google was named – or the iPod. Napster. Yahoo. There's a whole host of unusual names that have become a part of everyday conversation and I think they're viewed now as unique." Next, after the "continue" link, we unpack and unravel the defense:
New iMac and MacBook Pro (fortunately) void of Intel branding
AdJab was the first to notice something we've all been worrying about since the day Jobs announced the switch to Intel chips: Intel branding on the new Macs, or more specifically: the lack therof. After checking the product sites for the new iMac and MacBook Pro and confirming with a couple of our on-site bloggers, it's official: the new Macs weren't marred by any of the typical stickers and other silly marketing gobbly gook that our PC counterparts are victims of. So you lucky bunch who are placing orders right now for zippy new Intel-infused Macs, rest assured: they're still beautiful and sticker-free.
The story behind game logos
Many of the more memorable game logos, from Doom 3 to World of Warcraft, were created by the same company: Hamagami/Carroll. This interview with Justin Carroll goes into detail about the company's history and design process, and it's an interesting read, shedding some light on this obscure corner of game production. Surprisingly, Carroll never plays the games himself--he doesn't have time--but he employs a company full of avid gamers, all working to capture the game's spirit in its branding. While a game's packaging and logo will rarely make or break that game, having a box and design that appeals to shoppers and reflects the quality of the game is undeniably important.
