Johnson Controls

New:  Logo, visual system, business names and tagline

Launched:  October 1, 2007

Story in brief:
Professor Warren Johnson founded the company in 1885 to manufacture his invention, the electric room thermostat. Today its "Building Efficiency" business has grown from that seed, while its "Power Solutions" (think batteries) and "Automotive Experience" (think car interiors) businesses have been added. And it is big now, and global (140,000 employees, only 2,500 at the Milwaukee base). 

But in January 2006, the company was feeling misunderstood and underappreciated... coldly competent, where it sought to be open and approachable; boring, where it sought emotional resonance. Its logo, a wordmark with cascading O's, had been designed in 1974 to express transition from the mechanical to the computer age but now just felt tired... a drag, not a driver. So management retained Lippincott for a brand review.

Lippincott's facilitators established the brand basics, articulating a corporate brand platform that employees as well as customers could respect, a platform convening and cohering these disparate businesses in commonly understood functional and social purposes  and in a shared positioning:  "Johnson Controls is the global market leader in integrating technologies, products and services that redefine the relationships between people and their surroundings. Our market insight enables us to anticipate marketplace needs and provide practical, eco-friendly solutions. By understanding the changes that affect how we live, work and travel, we help create smart environments that are more comfortable, efficient, safe, and sustainable."

Lippincott's designers then provided a logo (whose wordmark would make "Johnson" the hero rather than "Controls"), featuring a symbol they would call the "open globe."  They felt  ideas of openness and global reach, and the desired emotional impact, could not be achieved through type alone, thus the symbol.

There's a tagline too, "Ingenuity Welcome," and a comprehensive visual system.  And I wish you could see the brand support website, designed by Eliot Phillips's group at Lippincott. (Johnson Controls will consider making some of this available to us.)

Credits:
C.E.O. - Initiated by John Barth, executed by Stephen A. Roell (who assumed leadership, coincidentally but happily, on the October 1 launch day).
Identity counsel and design - Lippincott (NY): consultants Rick Wise &
Jana Zednickova, creative director Rodney Abbot

First Impressions:
Strategy- It's truly an in-depth program, overdue perhaps but thoroughly planned, soundly executed and well communicated. It's not easy to unite such disparate businesses; these deserve to come together, however, in their shared social commitment and in the case this program makes for management quality.
Design- The "Controls" debate must have been interesting. Given the decision to keep it, I like the wordmark shift that puts Johnson first. The symbol (another fresh globe treatment... amazing how often this can be done!) achieves its goals of emotional expression, with suggestions of worldwide reach, commitment to environment, and a culture of openness. There's even a hint of a J and a C in it, a little double-take bonus. That's a lot of content for one little symbol.