Sensata Technologies

New:  Name, logo and the freestanding company

Launched:  April 27 2006

Story in brief:
For three billion dollars, Bain Capital bought the Sensors & Controls business (essentially the 'instruments' piece) of Texas Instruments, to create a more focused global leader in this industrial (with a tech edge) category.

Landor's namers played with every possible outgrowth of 'sensor' and its Latin root 'sensus,' feeling/sense. They found "Sensata," original and just odd enough to be available. The word Technologies was tacked on to reinforce diversity and more importantly, to add some hardness to an otherwise soft, even feminine-sounding name.

The design solution is simply s-e-n-s-a-t-a, written in Braille, punched up with colors to suggest diversity of markets and applications.

According to designer Nicolas Aparicio, Braille has relevance in suggesting a passion to resolve customer problems and the  cool-gray-to-hot-red color flow suggests "giving life to machines."  (Process trivia: the Landor team never met their clients in person. Interviews, reviews of name lists, design presentations... all via conference call.)

The April 27 launch of the new brand coincided neatly with the spin-out transaction, and birth of the new company: that takes planning, probably some late hours, and good fortune in the legal name clearance process.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Thomas Wroe, Jr.
ID program manager - Donna Kimmel, VP Human Resources
Identity counsel, naming, and design - Landor Associates:  Nicolas Aparicio, creative director; Anthony Shore, naming; Graham Atkinson, Braille idea
 

First Impressions:
It's a fresh idea, conceptually relevant (once explained) and visually appealing...  effective, at launch, to help get the new company up and running with a sense of pride and distinction.

For the long pull, I'd be concerned about the visual delicacy and graphically diffuse nature of the mark as shown above. In many applications, the "Sensata" piece of it will look pretty small and insignificant.

Landor provided a more vertical version too,  where it's the symbol that gets small while the name pops.

There are design advantages to wordmarks; and in this instance, wordmark design would provide opportunities to make "sensata" harder and tougher, perhaps making the visually intrusive "Technologies" expendable.

But that's technical quibbling. A Gold Star to Mr. Wroe for his creative and gutsy branding decision.