Aloha from Portland,
If you’re an agency that’s rolling out an entirely new look, it’s obvious that there will be a great deal of (well-deserved) excitement. If you’re an agency that’s a global powerhouse that’s been around for 70 years, there’s even more reason to celebrate.
Such was the case this week with DDB Worldwide.
Down in Miami, the network put on what looked like one heck of a shindig. Nile Rodgers, Mark Ritson and 7-time Paralympic gold medalist Tatyana McFadden were on hand to fire up the team.
But we couldn’t help notice something a little different going on down there. Among the good vibes was a t-shirt sported by DDB Worldwide CEO Wendy Clark (and Ritson), that looked like a new logo for the network a day before the official announcement.
Sure enough, we confirmed that, yep, DDB has a new brand identity. It’s a “B” formed with two “D’s,” an homage to the agency’s very first logo. It was accompanied by a lot of philosophies around what it means like, “a beacon for creativity” and that it is “contemporary and strategically designed for today’s needs” and is “much more than a symbol, it’s a canvas for the creativity of the network.”
We understand that this is meant to modernize and unify the brand (see: Wunderman Thompson), and is probably much more portable but, for what it’s worth, we actually really liked the most recent logo. There was something global about it that, in a lot of ways, made it timeless and provided a level of gravitas. The “B” may grow on us (and it already is seeing it in various forms like business cards and understanding the idea better), but we’re being a little sappy and sentimental about the whole thing.
Which brings us to Joan, an agency at the front end of their history. The New York shop started by Lisa Clunie and Jaime Robinson thought it was time for a change. What was most refreshing was the candor from Clunie.
“When we first launched, we didn’t take a ton of care in developing our identity in that we were still building what the company stood for and meant. Over the past three years, that’s become a lot more clear.”
Joan’s new logo is slick and has a simple narrative that’s easy to understand with some considered touches including what they call an “impactful, edgier, upper case word mark” with the “J” designed to be reminiscent Joan of Arc’s sword.
Kudos to Clunie, Robinson et. al. for keeping it short and sweet. It’s easy to understand what they’re doing and why. Of course, in fairness, it is a challenge to rethink what a 70-year-old agency should look like today. Perhaps we’re suffering from some “explanation fatigue,” but we would have been cool with “we took the original logo and made it look more interesting and modern.”
In other news this week …
More women have come forward in the BMF pregnancy discrimination story.
Martin!! Sorrell gets good news. A strong first full-year at S4.
The 2016 election sparked Kathryn Jones to start an agency dedicated to progressive politics.
Some job moves afoot: Dentsu went out and snapped up Jacki Kelley from Bloomberg. Marcus Wesson was promoted to CCO at Dailey. Forsman & Bodenfors named a new CEO in New York. John Norman made his way to Havas Chicago as CCO.
Other agency moves: Kantar consolidated all of their divisions under one brand name. Indie Crossmedia was named Etihad Airlines’ media AOR.
Worth a watch: All about creative legend Carol H. Williams.
Worth a read: John Trahar of Greatest Common Factory believes that in-house creative won’t destroy agencies.
Side hustle: This DDB San Francisco (see new logo!) art director created a children’s book to illustrate gender identity and fluidity.
And we would be remiss if we didn’t wish our amazing colleague, Katie Richards, a fond farewell. She’s off to fields anew and we are grateful for her many contributions to our fair publication.
Fancy more agency news? Give our sister site, AgencySpy, a read where you’ll see more happenings in our/your world. If you’re already a reader, a hat tip to you.
I am off next week for Spring Break. There will be a beach involved in this story—and perhaps skiing, bowling, an arcade and a water slide or two. If you’re off next week, enjoy it. If not … well, enjoy that, too.
Warm Regards,
Doug Zanger
Senior Editor, Creativity + Agencies
