The new MEC logo

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Messages 1 - 30 of total 30 in this topic
MH2

climber
Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 18, 2013 - 06:50pm PT
A new entrant in

There Are Two Kinds of...


Now bringing you

Dabblers and Danglers.


Climbers are danglers, according to CBC radio. I guess that's better than dabblers.


Hoser

climber
vancouver
Jun 18, 2013 - 07:31pm PT


They should just call it presidents choice gear and get it over with
Salamanizer

Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
Jun 18, 2013 - 10:43pm PT
Who the hell gets paid to design this sh#t. Looks like someone put that together on their laptop in the back seat of a cab while running ten minutes late to a board meeting on Monday after a long weekend of heavy drinking.

MH2

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2013 - 12:07am PT
I don't see where the old logo was so inspired that it scared that committee.


Relic

Social climber
Vancouver, BC
Jun 19, 2013 - 12:34am PT
The new logo says absolutely nothing about the brand while the old one says everything. What a horrible job they did.
harryhotdog

Social climber
north vancouver, B.C.
Jun 19, 2013 - 12:47am PT
Change for changes sake. How is a green mountain on the side of the letters MEC granola? What a waste of MY money.
MH2

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2013 - 12:48am PT
This is how change gets a bad name.
Fletcher

Trad climber
The great state of advaita
Jun 19, 2013 - 01:27am PT
I have no idea what the motivation for changing the logo is, so I can't speak to that.

If, though, they are targeting a more international market (or that their customers are increasingly coming from other countries), then getting rid of long English words is a common move (especially for countries that use non-Roman scripts). I'm not sure if that's true for MEC, thought. For example, "Federal Express" no longer exists, but is now FedEx. That one was derived by their customers in a way and if you are not English speaking, it's very easy to see the arrow in the current logo. I think UPS may be in the same boat (UPS vs. United Postal Service).

Also, when you are manufacturing physical gear, the logistics and cost of placing the all important brand logo on gear is simplified by a smaller rectangular logo.

I worked for a little company that once paid Paul Rand (in the late 1980's) $100,000 for a logo. He was well known for his logos and the most famous may be IBMs. He gathered the info he needed, went off an did it, produced a beautiful book describing the process went through to design it and presented to us. If we didn't like it, that was fine, but any new iterations would be another $100k. Fortunately, it was well received. Especially by the company's main founder and CEO who was known for his brilliant but sometimes exasperating attention to detail. However, there was a rumor that he (the founder) went through 30 iterations of Pantone greens before he found one that suited his needs for to color of one of the logo's letters. It now occurs to me that while both are good stories, both are at odds with each other. I'll have to check with the usual suspects who were in the know at the time.

Designing logos and company names is very interesting to me and I've had a small role in that in the past. It is not an easy task. The great ones seem so obvious, but there is a lot of wrangling, thought, hand-wringing, and probably opinionated yelling and screaming that went into creating them. After all, that tiny little patch of real estate is going to mean everything. It literally has the whole company's presence riding on it.

Of course, when you change anything, you are guaranteed to piss off at lest one person (and that's if you're lucky!). But change is the prime constant, eh?

Eric
Relic

Social climber
Vancouver, BC
Jun 19, 2013 - 02:58am PT
The purpose of the re-branding was to attract a more "urban" audience. I have seen the new logo in white in a news article too. They can't even get the color of the logo straight.

I live in the city and I think the logo is sh#t.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jun 19, 2013 - 09:34am PT

Interesting comments on appealing to an international audience with the logo change. That makes sense now that I've thought about it, but I don't see the 'urban' angle. Perhaps I live in too small of a town.


I wonder if the green mountain from the old logo could stand alone, when it comes to getting stitched on gear and what not.

AP

Trad climber
Calgary
Jun 19, 2013 - 09:58am PT
The MEC probably makes way more money selling disco jogging jackets than climbing gear anyway.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jun 19, 2013 - 10:17am PT


I can't be the first person to have thought of this.


MH2

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2013 - 10:51am PT
Good commentary, Fletcher. Guess I'll have to get used to MEC as just another TLA.
roadman

climber
Jun 19, 2013 - 11:25am PT
Member since 1994.

Small market, poor website, awful logo....
Mark Hudon

Trad climber
Hood River, OR
Jun 19, 2013 - 12:04pm PT
If I had come up with their new logo I'd expect to get fired soon.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Jun 19, 2013 - 12:25pm PT
Since MEC has done it's best to piss off international customers for many years now, I don't think the new logo was designed with the international market in mind.
klk

Trad climber
cali
Jun 19, 2013 - 12:30pm PT
member since seventy something. does me no frickin good whatever now that i live in the states.

the old logo was awfully close to the sportiva logo

Chinchen

climber
Way out there....
Jun 19, 2013 - 12:59pm PT
Looks like sh#t. Bummer, I could have done better.
Gerg

Trad climber
Calgary
Jun 19, 2013 - 01:09pm PT
Is this what the new board members decided on?
haha
With all the new young talent out there in the design field they give us this slap job.
Oplopanax

Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
Jun 19, 2013 - 10:15pm PT
'Pass the Pitons' Pete

Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
Jun 20, 2013 - 12:10am PT
What brilliance!

It's right up there when they decided to rename the Northwest Territories. So they took a Canada-wide poll to see what it should be renamed.

#1 Most popular choice: the Northwest Territories

#2 Most popular choice: Bob
climbski2

Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
Jun 20, 2013 - 12:28am PT
Sometimes I love Canada.

If they wanted simple they should have gone really simple.

How bout a plain single. M
Chief

climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
Jun 20, 2013 - 01:27am PT
Member since 76.

"A bastion of mediocrity staffed by overeducated backpackers flogging bland and inferior imitations of innovator's product in the name of benevolent social consumerism".

Old logo not so great but understandable.
New one.....lame.
Bad Climber

climber
Jun 20, 2013 - 08:58am PT
MEC has been semi-dead to me since they dropped the full line of RAD pants. Used to be able to get a range of colors in all sizes, including the tall kind that I need.

Put the rad back in RAd!

BAd
MH2

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 20, 2013 - 11:03am PT
Ah you bunch of elitists. Just what the poor store worried about - you danglers(climbers) scaring off the dabblers(customers) with your emblem of a mountain.
happiegrrrl

Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
Jun 20, 2013 - 01:06pm PT
I'm no pro at logo design, for sure. But I have to wonder how the deciders ate whatever BS the *creative* agency was feeding them, to agree to that logo.... Yet it seems to be the way things have been going in the last year. A trend towards extraordinarily boring logos.

I liked the one shown above with the mountain and letters combined.

RyanD

climber
Squamish
Jun 20, 2013 - 01:38pm PT
MEH, lol


I could care less about the logo so long as the return policy remains unharmed.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Jun 20, 2013 - 01:49pm PT
I could care less about the logo so long as the return policy remains unharmed.

Given what just happened at REI, I suspect MEC will be looking hard at its return policies before long.

But really, Relic's post upthread says it all:
The new logo says absolutely nothing about the brand while the old one says everything. What a horrible job they did.

Except that from the point of view of those in the Boardroom, it should end with "What a brilliant job they did."

Seriously. The whole point of that kind of logo is to disassociate the brand from any specific product or even product category. A box with some initials in it is a fine way to do that.

With that in mind, I point out that the box should have contained the letters "NBI" rather than "MEC." As in: "Nothing But Initials"
Rolfr

Social climber
North Vancouver BC
Jun 21, 2013 - 12:52am PT
Say what you will about the logo, they still support climbers access issues.

The times they are a changing, from a Vancouver newspaper article. (that's the crinkly stuff with ink on it, used to communicate before the intardnet.)

"The most recent member-survey information on customer interests posted to Mountain Equipment Co-op’s website also reflects the changes. While 85 per cent of members surveyed listed camping and 61 per cent listed hiking as interests, cycling was a big category with 73 per cent of members and fitness or working out at a gym with 54 per cent.

And by comparison, 26 per cent listed yoga or Pilates as an interest versus 12 per cent for climbing."



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/affordability/Mountain+Equipment+retools+brand/8542417/story.html#ixzz2Wp4M82vT

I guess we are all just dinosaurs.


happiegrrrl

Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
Jun 21, 2013 - 12:29pm PT
With that in mind, I point out that the box should have contained the letters "NBI" rather than "MEC." As in: "Nothing But Initials"


Hey - that would be a good suggestion for that person who came on asking people to provide a name for his new company.
Messages 1 - 30 of total 30 in this topic
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