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A leader in the production and distribution of gas-based domestic appliances, Emegé (pronounced, roughly, eh-meh-heh) is a 75-year-old, family-owned corporation based in Argentina, slowly growing into the international market. With six logos logos since its inception and the latest update in 2003, Emegé has released a contemporary new identity designed by Buenos Aires-based Brea, García Barra y asoc..
Logo in its holding shape.
Clearly the old logo was anything but attractive and might as well have been an electronics store targeted to vampires and mass murderers, so improving upon it was not that difficult. Nonetheless the wordmark created by BGBA is an assertive design that is streamlined and confident. I am regularly skeptical towards unicase wordmarks, but this one works better than most, specially since all characters occupy neatly the same visual width (the M is a little wider) and the lowercase “e”s add a nice rhythm that the monotonous uppercase “E” wouldn’t, so instead of arriving at a wordmark with nine horizontal bars this is a good balance of round corners and straight lines. The accent over the last “e” does a great task in making the wordmark more asymmetrical and creating a beginning and an end point.
Packaging and collateral samples.
Logo for a museum within corporate headquarters.
Tag line.
To support the simple and contemporary wordmark, BGBA selected Process Type Foundry’s Klavika for use in the identity. One of my favorite things about this project is the tag line and its adorning accent: “Cada día más” which literally translates to “Each day more” is visualized by the uphill slant of the accent, which in Spanish serves as a way to denote that emphasis should be placed on the letter directly below it, so together it works as a nice metaphor for continued and increased positive movement.
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Remy Overkempe’s comment is:
I like the tag line and the slant. That is the perhaps the only thing I like about it all. Something about the wordmark annoys me to hell. Perhaps because the letters look so boxy? Loving the colour, though.
On Aug.14.2008 at 10:17 AMPeter Gasston’s comment is:
The only thing I find a little off-kilter is the capital E in 'museo Emege'.
On Aug.14.2008 at 10:21 AMDaniel Campos’s comment is:
Very, very ,very good!
I really liked that!
Dale’s comment is:
Very nice.
Very clean. And bravo on the clean package design. It's pretty easy (for the client) to clutter that kind of stuff up and they managed to keep it simple and fresh.
On Aug.14.2008 at 10:39 AMArnold P’s comment is:
Un poco generico, pero no está mal
On Aug.14.2008 at 10:42 AMRodrigo Müller’s comment is:
I totally dislike that squared corner in the G.
On Aug.14.2008 at 11:00 AMStuart’s comment is:
Warm, friendly, but utilitarian. Target hit, id say.l
On Aug.14.2008 at 11:03 AMNick Irwin’s comment is:
mmmm saucy! I dig...glad they went away from the "XTREME" logo era look
On Aug.14.2008 at 11:53 AMRico’s comment is:
I like the old logo.
Just kidding. The '80's called, they want their logo back.
On Aug.14.2008 at 11:57 AMDavid Sanchez’s comment is:
Brutal,me agrada mucho la marca, y honestamente pienso de igual manera, utilitario, sencillo sin distracciones, y autentico a sus raíces, bien euro Argentino. Muy buen trabajo.
On Aug.14.2008 at 11:57 AMAndrei’s comment is:
I didn't like museo Emege either. It's the only capital E throughout.
On Aug.14.2008 at 12:42 PMMatheus’s comment is:
Good advance. nothing really impressive here
On Aug.14.2008 at 01:31 PMStereo Radiation’s comment is:
Sure hope Facebook doesn't mind.
On Aug.14.2008 at 02:14 PMdg3’s comment is:
I'm diggin' it.
On Aug.14.2008 at 02:52 PMXavez’s comment is:
I totally totally love this logo. Great choice of colour, too. I'm sold!
Bad choice on the capital "E" in museo Emegé though. If the brandname in the logo isn't capitalized, it sure needn't be capitalized in the subscript--I don't see any capitalization in the overall branding, so it is an odd choice to say the least :).
On Aug.14.2008 at 03:11 PMdamon’s comment is:
feels good.
the tag line is neat too.
On Aug.14.2008 at 03:20 PMdarrel’s comment is:
"Sure hope Facebook doesn't mind"
I don't think Facebook invented blue.
On Aug.14.2008 at 03:34 PMadam’s comment is:
wow. great work. very modern and fresh update, really feels like it could be a leader in the modern home appliances manufacturers.
smooth applications on the packaging and collateral also.
the only thing i am disappointed about is why they dropped the "bat mayor" mascot from the 70s?!?!?!?!?
On Aug.14.2008 at 03:34 PMJoe Szczepaniak’s comment is:
about the facebook logo...
the only connection between this mark and facebook's is the colors. Nobody can claim ownership of a color that hasn't been around for a long time. at best, you can claim to "own" a color within a certain specific industry.
if you think there are any other connections it would reveal that you know nothing about typefaces. if i have to explain that it would also reveal that you know nothing about typefaces.
On Aug.14.2008 at 04:02 PMAlfonso’s comment is:
The only thing I dig about the old one that is not present in the new logo is the emphasis on the M and the G. It's hard to explain why in english, but I'll try. The letter M's "name" in spanish is "eme" (ehme) and the "name" for the letter G is "ge" (he). Emegé, then, feels like the direct pronounciation of the letters M and G. This is to say that if you write "MG", spanish-speaking people will pronounce it precisely the same as writing "Emegé". So, the color/typeface play in the previous logo had a charming (if, perhaps, overplayed) quirk to it that the new one ignores completely.
I still really like the new one, though.
On Aug.14.2008 at 04:10 PMdg3’s comment is:
It doesn't look at all like Facebook. Wise up.
On Aug.14.2008 at 05:29 PMvectr’s comment is:
Call me a fascist, but if all signage and branding was this I'd be happy. All body copy to be set in Helvetica.
Once this objective is achieved, open up streets, walls, galleries and the truly sublime to the rest of the possible forms and colors.
(kidding... a bit)
Dale Harris’s comment is:
Neat.
On Aug.14.2008 at 08:14 PMWünderwoman’s comment is:
Brilliant!
On Aug.14.2008 at 08:32 PMJohn Mindiola III’s comment is:
that package design is absolutely gorgeous. and the manual inside? beautiful. let's put it this way: if you choose a typeface from process, you're probably going to have a winner.
On Aug.14.2008 at 10:03 PMRob Hopkins’s comment is:
rodrigo muller made a comment about the squared corner on the G, however, every letter has a hard corner on it - your oversight may have been someone's insight.
On Aug.15.2008 at 04:25 AMAlice Baldwin’s comment is:
The old one is bad, but I'm not stoked about the new logo. It just feels typical to me. Same thing you are likely to see in a store if you are shopping for appliances. I'm not sure if it is the overall look, or maybe it is the way it is implemented in the packaging. There is nothing here that would gravitate me towards it and make me pick it up off the shelf.
On Aug.15.2008 at 04:26 AMJulio Ferro’s comment is:
Wordmark is cool, branding is cool, tagline is cool. But the overall language seems proper for an electronic appliances company. Emege just produces gas stoves and (again) the language is pretty electronic.
Maybe the reason behind is to support the design for the appliances.
Thanks god the old logo was replaced by this one!
On Aug.15.2008 at 10:26 AMjRod’s comment is:
well, at the very least, it is a big step up from the existing logo. If that's all they were going for, then they certainly got it. i realize that its not a "perfect" fit for what they do, but it is still a solid logo that looks great on the new packaging. props for moving in the right direction, despite what all of us design snobs may think.
On Aug.15.2008 at 11:09 AMScottS’s comment is:
a beautiful example of a well-thought-out and deftly-executed wordmark. Kudos all around on this one. One of my faves of the year.
On Aug.15.2008 at 11:42 AMadam’s comment is:
in regards to the blue comments here... t-mobile has trademarked the color magenta.
granted, the copyright only really applies to other companies in the same or similar fields, but still. kinda weird. you can copyright a color.
On Aug.15.2008 at 03:00 PMkoyo’s comment is:
Nice. Good Argentinian Work.
Vamos Argentina!!!
On Aug.15.2008 at 03:12 PMGlenn Sakamoto’s comment is:
The museum mark is wonderful.
On Aug.16.2008 at 02:07 PMmongoose’s comment is:
modern, celan.. and the accent mark, I think, will work well as a potential branding element, as with the 'Casa dia mas'. It adds just that nice bit of assympetry. That said, it's a little vague as to what the company actually does; though it befits home/office products well i think.
A, because of the huge gulf of good between the new and old one.
On Aug.17.2008 at 01:40 PMEric Janssen Strohl’s comment is:
I think this is a move in the right direction. Certainly couldn't get much worse that the last mark. I'm not familiar with Argentinean consumer products, but the new packaging has a distinctly european feel to it. A similar aesthetic to something you'd see in France or Spain.
On Aug.17.2008 at 02:01 PMT-Bone’s comment is:
That old logo is brutal!
like the new look, clean, orderly and restrained.
it looks like a logo i've seen before though, it used letters that lined up and was placed on a colour. also i can't tell the difference between men and women or cats and giraffes.
why do people have to compare logos to others? admittedly i've done it in other posts but have since slapped myself (hard) and promised to never do it again.
On Aug.17.2008 at 09:58 PMatomo’s comment is:
The wordmark is ok, but the colour is just so amazingly underwhelming.
On Aug.17.2008 at 10:52 PMBWJ’s comment is:
Nice to see a well executed re-brand.
Although it's not earth-shattering, it's leagues ahead of their old mark and carries the sophistication of an international corporation.
Good work.
On Aug.18.2008 at 01:05 PMmax’s comment is:
Lovely.
On Aug.19.2008 at 11:19 AMPedro’s comment is:
Hacer algo mejor que el antiguo logo no era tan dificil!. Pero me gusta mucho el logo nuevo, muy limpio, moderno, tengo dudas de la elección del color, ya que eligieron un color frío, cuando lo que venden es calor.
El ícono es muy bueno como lo resolvieron, usándolo como tilde de la "e" y es un símbolo habitual en estos equipos, para "aumentar la energía", o sea que creo que está muy bien resuelto, junto con el slogan. Felicitaciones!
orangetiki’s comment is:
Very clean and well done. But why the sharp corner in the G ( I know others have asked that but I wanted to ask again
On Aug.20.2008 at 01:29 PMGuillermo Brea’s comment is:
Dear colleagues: thank you all for your valuable comments and suggestions. Anything to improve our work is welcome. Let me add a few further comments:
To Alfonso: MG are initials for Manuel Gak, company founder. We did considered that by writing that two letters in upper case and the eee in low case.
To Julio: emege not only produces gas stoves, but another appliances too, including electric/electronics in the future.
To Pedro: color is an opinable matter, but red and orange in the gas burning business means malfunction, (wrigth gas flame is blue).
Thank you very much to you all once more.
Justin Daniel’s comment is:
I think it's a noticeable improvement from the old logo (thriller) but the new logo is still a bit dated and boxy - the product packaging looks like something from the late 90's.
On Aug.28.2008 at 01:21 AMChris Mills’s comment is:
I see how the new identity will be adopted and like it. The major loss from old to new here is personality.
On Sep.01.2008 at 11:33 PMMartín’s comment is:
Really think this is great! The accent is not merely relating to how speech sounds, but also concerned with beauty as well as making use of a clever, subtle method to express the corporate´s mission statement.
On Sep.25.2008 at 04:01 PMComments in Brand New, V1.0 have been closed.