Eastman Kodak

New:  Corporate and brand logo

Launched:  January 6, 2006,
at the International Consumer Electronics Show

Story in brief:
This paragraph was in a news release about CEO Antonio Perez's speech at the Las Vegas show, under the heading "Updated Kodak Brand Mark:"

"Perez also unveiled the latest evolution of Kodak's brand logo. This new look moves the Kodak name out of the traditional yellow box, giving it a more contemporary design, a streamlined rounded look and distinctive letters. This introduction is the latest step in the company's broad brand transformation effort, which reflects the multi-industry, digital imaging leader Kodak has become."

Another source reports that "This 'Brand Transformation' project appears to have originated from the long term relationship with Ogilvy. Clear tangible guidelines never seemed to materialize but there were plenty of interim guidelines that came in the form of vague short paged pdfs; each progressively spoke in more detail about a new visual style." The source notes that "Kodak is a traditionally slow moving organization with large marketing and communication divisions."

Ogilvy's Brian Collins confirms that his BIG group has worked with Kodak for years, and last year was commissioned to develop a consumer brand identity strategy and visual system. The new mark is his team's work.

In an internal January 9 memo, CMO Carl Gustin recognized the need now to move a little faster: "We are working quickly to update our guidelines, policies and practices. This is a major change with a lot of work yet to be done. We chose to reveal the wordmark without the completed 'rulebook' because it was ready and it was time to go!"

The new mark was first shown between two yellow bars. These are not considered by the designers to be integral to the logo. The visual systems that BIG and  Lippincott Mercer are designing will provide a variety of ways Kodak can continue to use yellow, adjacent to (but not behind) the red wordmark, in media it controls.  I understand the version with bars is considered to be a "sponsorship logo," designed to provide a way yellow can be added in media whose design Kodak does not control.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Antonio Perez
C.M.O. - Carl E. Gustin, Jr.
Brand identity strategy & design - BIG (Brand Integration Group), Ogilvy NY
Brian Collins, strategy; Allen Hori, design direction
Corporate visual system, brand architecture, applications design -
Lippincott Mercer

First Impressions:
It's a timely change, which will help us rethink and rediscover Kodak as a category brand.  A bit conservative perhaps, but fresh and clean. It restores the unique Kodak name, George Eastman's bold creation and the brand's primary identity asset, to preeminence.

The new mark is stronger and more broadly functional without the yellow bars. Their occasional addition is not only unnecessary and confusing, it inevitably dilutes and demeans the mark itself. I trust they will go away.

Other comments:
Jocelyn Mathewes, quoted from SpeakUp:
"I'm not sure it's an improvement, because the visual 'freshening' doesn't seem to correspond with any overall 'freshening' within the company or the products and services it's marketing. I hate to critique the logo for the mere context of its release, but I think that's its biggest weakness; it seemed to come out of nowhere, without a well-argued reason, and without any other exciting news and/or strategy."

Jocelyn, I suspect the strategy is in place. But you're right... a soft, low-profile launch like this is a missed opportunity to communicate it. Tony

Consultant William Agush:
"Given the transformation of the photography and imaging business I'd have tried to communicate Kodak's place in that new landscape with more definitiveness. This mark still says old Kodak to me with new typography -- clarity perhaps, but without vision."