Thompson Brand Partners

Nice, but where's the river?

There's been a lot of talk about the recently re-designed London Underground tube map. It's been causing a lot of fuss in the mainstream press and designers and communication professionals have all been putting their two penneth in.

The new one definitely looks a lot cleaner and it's easier to see the stations without the pricing zones (I notice on the excellent iphone app, London Underground there are no zones either) but as a non-London dweller, I do find the zones helpful when working out what kind of cost is incurred when I'm not using the Oyster card. But I can live with that. There has been talk of cheekily sneaking prices up now the zones have gone, but surely not?!

Now for the big controversy - the Thames has gone. Now, I am generally in favour of clean and clarity over fussiness and there has been some nice subtle modifications to the map, but I can't see the logic of losing the river. I realise that it's largely an irrelevance when travelling underground, but I find it a useful navigation tool for my cack handed travels in London. If I have a rough idea if a place is North or South of the river, I'm pretty much OK and 9 times out of 10, I'll use the tube map to get my bearings. Now I'm scuppered (but it's still on the iphone app - hah). I just can't see the logic.

What would Harry Beck (the original designer of the map) think? I think he'd be saying: No.No.No.

Have a look and let me know what you think...

Before

After

Banks and brands

We heard the news yesterday that the European banking giant Santander plans to phase out the British household financial names of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. 

I thought the reaction from the public was very telling and you could argue that we'd have seen a very different reaction prior to the financial disaster we've all experienced. I think there's so much less trust in the financial brands and the organisations that have come out of the financial debacle are few and far between. Santander have been one of the few according to many informed commentators.

Banks have always suffered from little or poor brand loyalty. The banks that have stuck their necks out from a brand perspective have succeeded (First Direct, IF spring to mind immediately) the rest of the banking brands don't mean anything and you could argue in the current climate that's just fine. We're looking for our banks to be safe and solid not fancy dan brands with aspirations way above their ability.

We're looking for safety and scale as consumers in our banks right now. And it's very, very sad that many of our smaller financial institutions are suffering so badly - in particular the mutuals - and you could argue that it's the combination of the market and their lending/borrowing policies. 

I'm no financial expert. But what I do know is there will be a trend to consolidation on the brand front with the financial institutions as they hunker down to deal with the global firestorm they are still struggling to sort out. We're all now looking for safety and solidity where our cash is concerned and the bigger and more credible brand, the better. 

So when Santander are looking at getting rid of some of the most iconic brands in the UK - B&B bowler hat men, for instance - we don't bat an eyelid. And it's interesting. Some commentators have said it's a sad day with the global march of a big brand wiping out smaller, local brands. But the reality is that Santander is a big, successful, well managed business that has struck at the right time when confidence in the banking sector is low and using the weakness of the sector to snap up rivals.

I'm not entirely convinced that UK consumers know that much about Santander, but they're behaving like a huge brand and given they plan to spend £12m on the rebranding exercise we'll know an awful lot more about them very, very quickly.

Fish rebranded

Now I don't think there's a lot wrong with Pollock.

OK, it sounds like bollock. And I could see it could cause some embarassment at the fish counter with the home county set if the fish monger mishears your request (not so up North obviously).

It's a fish that tastes good, is very sustainable as it's not over fished and it smokes very well.

So Sainsbury's have decided to rebrand Pollack as Colin. Seriously. Apparently it's the french word for Hake, but it ends up making the fish sound like it wears tank tops and lives in a semi detached house. On top of this ignominy the packaging has been designed by Wayne Hemingway and is 'inspired' Jackson Pollock *gasp*

The world has gone mad.

The white stuff

I've really enjoyed the snow. 

I like what it does to our daily routine. It cocks things up and makes life a bit more unpredictable. And I like that. I think we've got used to having pretty plain weather and life is definitely more interesting with a good dose of winter weather.

There's nothing us Brits like but talking about the it and boy have we had plenty to talk about. Every client meeting in the past two weeks has included a 10 minute preamble about the state of the M62 or wether the East Coast mainline is still running on time (bad and no, answers the questions). 

There has definitely been a Dunkirk spirit with staff doing their damned to get in to the office from as far afield as Oldham and Barnsley (nice one Paul and Anna) and special mention has to go to Cynthia who has been battling with the iced incline outside her house for the best part of a week.

Anyway, it looks beautiful and I took a couple of hours out this weekend to go walking nearby and enjoy the childlike pleasure of tramping through unspoilt snow. Something that I haven't done for a long time.

Leeds Trinity joins the Presidential Race

One of our web banners we have produced for the "Do your Degree at Leeds Trinity" campaign popping up on a very timely new story for NBC.

The banks have some explaining to do

Given the general economic kerfuffle that's going on out there, it's interesting to see how these momentous events impact on the world of branding, other that scaring everybody half to death into not spending anything.

There's a very good post on the Creative Review blog today about how the visual identities of the banks has evolved over time and reflects their desire to move from austere, forbidding but safe institutions to bright, shiny new 'businesses' that want to be your mate.

There was a time when a bank was seen as a safe pair of hands to be trusted with your cash and it's brand was part of that deal. Then they got all globally ambitious and needed a brand to be part of their thrusting growth plans. The post charts the history of bank branding and makes a persuasive case for a return to pin stripes and heraldic eagles to go some way to restoring trust in the banks again.

Have a read:

Creative Review Blog

A 50th Do

Well, the weekend just gone saw Ian celebrate his 50th birthday in style. A huge marque, the poshest portaloos I've ever seen and an amazing set up for a dance floor - huge stacks of speakers, lasers, smoke machine and Dean the DJ. The tunes were massive, the birthday boy speech funny, and the firework display explosive!

Check out the infamous Ian hair, which looked even more plentiful for his special day!

Oddbod

Saw a few people out in Headingley tonight who reminded me of the likeable but freaky monster Oddbod - from Carry on Screaming (surely the best name for a creature ever).

You know what, I'm thinking this post is just an excuse to show a picture of the exceptionally foxy Fenella Fielding.

Frying tonight.