EDF:  Euroenergy

New:  logo

Launched:  July 7, 2005

Story in brief:
This is about Europe. Specifically, it is the repositioning of France's leading electric power company to better compete throughout Europe. Its "EDF" initials are retained, but the full name "Electricité de France" is no longer spelled out in the logo (and has virtually disappeared from the Web site, edf.fr).

Working under Creative Director Vanessa Van Steelandt, designers Patrick Le Mahec and Sophie Tchérakian added the bright orange symbol, a calligraphic (like Lucent) flower/sun/turbine/person, to bold and simple eDF letterforms... lower-casing the "e," incidentally, to be distinctive and more friendly. (The press release says the "e" also expresses 'technology,' because e = electron.  PR writers never cease to amaze me.)

A "sound identity" was also commissioned, which we'll seek to add here.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Pierre Gadonneix
Identity Design - Plan créatif, the ad agency
Sound identity design - Daniel Perreau, 15-30 Music

First Impressions:
Good leadership, good thinking, well implemented.

Creative: The symbol will sparkle in every medium. I enjoy its several meanings, but for me 'person' will always dominate; thus EDF joins Cingular and others in the little club of avatars I noted in my 2003 Smith & Nephew review.

Strategy: "France" lingers in the initial "F," and a new name would be an even bolder initiative. But as HSBC and others have demonstrated, initials can can be made to live on their own, to grow away from their history. It can help, though, to add a symbol, thus redirecting our focus from the meaningless and boring initials to something more memorable and engaging.

Other comments:
Thanks to Alexis Godefroy for flagging this one for us. I agree, Alexis, that advertising agencies seldom produce good identity design (see Sourcing Identity Work), but EDF is an exception. 

We might note, however, that a more experienced identity designer would probably have provided an alternative horizontal logo configuration...

From Croatia, Radovan Svob suggests that "flower/sun/turbine/person" misses the closest reference, the shape of France itself. "French are very aware of the hexagonal shape of their country. I'm pretty sure the designers had in mind electricity spreading to every corner of the country."