“You should have been there when we presented this one,” says creative director Mike Lemme. The proposed new mark, taking off from the company’s name, is a type treatment of that name upside-down and/or backwards.
It’s not just a stunt. The meaning of the company’s name, of course, is the first thing that motivates this mark. But the audacity of the logo speaks loudly and clearly to the audacity of the company, which is known for solving the knottiest software development problems. There’s also the affinity of the company’s primary technical audience (not to mention its secondary audience, Vertigo’s internal staff) for visual conundrums, for a clever little challenge that demands the application of their own cleverness.
The branding work didn’t, of course, stop at the logo. It also encompassed a comprehensive brand book, graphic standards, a re-design of the website, a portfolio of graphic templates, and more.
The fun, puzzling nature of the mark and the obsessive precision of the system has energized the client’s organization and impressed customers and friends alike. It has earned D/C a gold statue in the San Francisco ADDYs and an entry into the national ADDYs. And, perhaps best of all, Vertigo has just closed books on their best year ever.
While Hard Rock is aggressively expanding into hotels and casinos, this rockin’ fork, created by D/C, was designed to promote the restaurants. In fact, after first appearing in selected U.S. outdoor, the fork has proved so popular among non-U.S. franchisees that it has become the global advertising icon of Hard Rock Cafes, wordlessly summing up the idea of a rock ’n’ roll restaurant. D/C picked up the Best of Show prize in the competitive San Francisco ADDYs for it.
Featuring just-post-pubescent pop-throbs Paramore on its cover and some of the best copy, photography and design in the whole world of rock criticism, the third annual Hard Rock Annual arrived in subscriber mailboxes in mid-February bound into copies of Rolling Stone and Spin.
Engineered to start arguments, inspire musical exploration and generally connect the Hard Rock brand to the rock of today, the Annual ignited its first controversy even before subscription copies were mailed, when one artist, receiving his or her preview edition, wasn’t entirely sure if the (admittedly over-written) verbiage inside was indeed positive.
Founded in the mid-seventies by the late singer-songwriter Harry Chapin (“Cats in the Cradle,” “Taxi,” etc.) and DJ Bill Ayres, WhyHunger (formerly World Hunger Year) is dedicated to getting at the root causes of hunger and the poverty that inevitably accompanies it. They do this by finding and funding grassroots groups that are having a measure of success and then sharing those successful techniques with other grassroots groups, and so on.
D/C got involved with WhyHunger two years ago when the agency conceived and designed a benefit CD for the group that featured songs by Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith and the Hold Steady, among many others, and was sponsored by Hard Rock. The collection was called Serve, and its success led to D/C developing Serve2, with a new set of songs from new and veteran artists, including Springsteen and the Hold Steady again. This time, with the help of the digital distribution company The Orchard, the set was picked up by iTunes and featured on localized iTunes sites around the world, leading to a whole new level of publicity and funds for fighting hunger. In October, D/C also completed a brand overhaul for the 30-year-old organization. The powerfully simple logo picks up the word “why,” but adds a period after it — because this group is not about just asking questions, it’s about real-world solutions. And currently in progress is a new WhyHunger website, with information architecture, visual design and copy by D/C.
The client reports that, in part due to the new branding and accompanying advertising from D/C, their fall fundraiser shattered all previous records. And, after all, that’s what it’s all about.
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