NOTE: This is an archived version of the first incarnation of Brand New. All posts have been closed to comments. Please visit underconsideration.com/brandnew for the latest version. If you would like to see this specific post, simply delete _v1 from the URL.
Fiserv, the largest provider of technology, logistics and information management for the financial services industry has recently updated its 25-year-old logo which, rather painfully, demonstrated its 1984 roots. Designed by Landor, the new wordmark is an excellent corporate design: It is simple, confident and has just enough quirks to make it unique and ownable. The condensed sans serif is a great way of creating a compact wordmark that has as much punch as an icon. The period at the end is my favorite part, it clearly states “the line ends here, we are the best.” In contrast, my least favorite part is the missing dot over the “i.” I have never liked that move. An “i” needs its period, otherwise it’s just a stick, and in this particular case, it looks like the dot was transplanted to the end, so as much as I like the period, it feels like the “i” had to sacrifice its own. Nonetheless, this is a simple, strong corporate design and major bonus points for ditching the industry-issued color blue in favor of orange.
Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for the tip.
Jump to Most Recent Comment
Casey Auve’s comment is:
First! Ha!
Nice wordmark... definite improvement!
On Feb.27.2009 at 08:41 AM
Nick Irwin’s comment is:
well designed love the tall x-height
(on side note: can we please stop the "first" what is this yahoo.com are we reading a blog on Paris Hilton...no...we are not, please save your "first" comments for those sites...thanks :)
On Feb.27.2009 at 08:47 AM
Anonymous’s comment is:
Ah, the period brings so much more power to this mark.
It's funny, but the period is my favorite part of the logo too - I think the dot over the i would have lessened the importance of that period because at that point you'd be seeing that same shape for a second time.
The original shouts ESPN in the mid-90's for me, so it was probably somewhat progressive in the 80's. Kudos to them, usually branding in the financial sector gets too tied up by committee to be any good.
On Feb.27.2009 at 09:07 AM
Lindsay’s comment is:
I don't think it is that successful as a word mark. It isn't unique enough. Although anything would be an improvement on the previous, which has few redeeming features.
Seems pretty much your usual, lowercase sans serif word mark, I suppose orange is a risk.
Also never been a fan of condensed fonts
On Feb.27.2009 at 09:12 AM
CJ’s comment is:
Definite improvement, but the letters don't quite sit right to me. I keep reading "serv" first, they "fi" feel as tho they are pushed to the side. Might be me tho!
On Feb.27.2009 at 09:21 AM
Andreas Lanjerud’s comment is:
I'm not too sure about the "f". It's so small that it makes the "v" look really big. Almost like someone is pulling the logo from the right.
On Feb.27.2009 at 09:51 AM
Nick Irwin’s comment is:
maybe the "fi" should have been a ligature perhaps
On Feb.27.2009 at 09:53 AM
jRod’s comment is:
considering the type of business they are in and the fact that so many have gone to weirder and weirder icons makes this a fresh change. i really like compressed fonts (especially in web design) and this one does the job nicely.
well executed logo.
On Feb.27.2009 at 10:20 AM
Andrew Sabatier’s comment is:
An assessment of the Fiserv logo doesn't do justice to the new brand identity. On it's own the brandmark is a clean and solidly structured piece of type, given emphasis and some ownability by the full stop. Appropriately the wordmark is very formal and corporate. It's a vast improvement over the previous mark but in and of itself looks very off-the-shelf. And almost non-proprietary and characterless with intent.
The full stop idea belongs to Deloitte – a major global financial services brand. After dropping Touche Tohmatsu, Deloitte asserted itself as the last stop in the financial services sector.
The strength of the Fiserv identity is not the full stop but how the identity behaves in context as a mark. It is one mark of many brand marks that identify the Fiserv brand. The v works nicely as an arrow on the website and adds another dimension to the perception of the brandmark.
Overall the new identity communicates a strong sense of a utilitarian and no nonsense financial mechanism. There are no warm fuzzies here, this is a faceless machine.
A.
Glenn Sakamoto’s comment is:
Definitely an improvement but the space between the "r" and the "v" could use some help!
On Feb.27.2009 at 10:33 AM
Chris’s comment is:
The wordmark is OK. Agree with Armin's comments about the period and the 'i'. Problem with it is a wordmark that simple plus sparse branding (strictly judging by the website) makes the whole brand pretty weak. I don't think it communicates their services very well. I still don't really understand what they do.
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:01 AM
Jonathan Carnehl’s comment is:
I agree that moving around the dot of the "i" is overdone and can be cheeseball. But, in this case, it was not the first thing I noticed, so it doesn't bother me.
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:05 AM
Josh’s comment is:
Too close to CareerBuilder's identity for me.
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:25 AM
damon’s comment is:
boooring.
but god, anything is an improvement over that previous one.
Moe’s comment is:
That a company operating in the financial sector in 2009 would use an all-lowercase wordmark is rather telling, I think.
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:37 AM
sanjay’s comment is:
When we are seeing 'before' and 'after' images on brandnew, we become relative in judgment. we see the 'before' image and then we feel 'after' image is an improvement. If we now kind of scroll up and see the word mark once again, it is just a lump. Anything that is boring and not evolved, we call it 'corporate'. It is a thoughtless image. Frankly.
Where is the journey? From:
Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom.
(Elements > Connection > Wit > Emotion.)
The logos that have been successful make the journey. With a few exceptions.
The word mark seems to exist just on the data level with elements placed on a baseline.
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:44 AM
Anonymous’s comment is:
Flickr doesn't like it when I link directly to an image … but I'll try
I don't have a problem with the dotless "i". Like most memes in graphic design, it can be done well. I think it's done pretty well, here. But I wanted to see how it might look had the team decided to drop the dot below the x-height.
It's just a quick stab at it, but I think the original is stronger without the dot.
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:53 AM
Filipe’s comment is:
since we are talking about full stops, i love Tom Dixon's identity
its lovely how the name is between two dots
im not so sure about the Fiserv logo... its great that they ditched the "corporation" blue, but it looks like a 90's diskette logo, or something like that. its not bad, at all, but it could've been better (but it can always be, isn it right?)
On Feb.27.2009 at 11:57 AM
Pamela’s comment is:
An Improvement.
However, I'm alright with the period at the end.
It's like it's saying "We're the largest provider of technology. Period."
Cheers!
On Feb.27.2009 at 12:12 PM
john’s comment is:
This is a bit off topic, but can I request that the proprietors of this fine website delete with extreme prejudice any and all "first!" posts? There's just no place for them here.
On Feb.27.2009 at 12:19 PM
bakari’s comment is:
BORING!
It looks under-developed to the nth degree. All they had to do was "freshen up" the old mark.
On Feb.27.2009 at 12:57 PM
Neil’s comment is:
I don't believe this is much of an improvement on what it was previously, to be very honest. It's clean and it's a little more legible, but it doesn't make it a great logo. It has no memorable qualities.
On an unrelated note, I'd like to add my voice in agreement to the deletion of all "First!" posts.
On Feb.27.2009 at 01:19 PM
Mike’s comment is:
Trivia: The dot over the i is called a tittle.
I like that the i doesn't have it, because there's nothing interrupting that space over the x-height. It goes with the fact that the f is the only one that goes above the line and it's also the beginning of the name.
On Feb.27.2009 at 01:31 PM
Johnny Holeva’s comment is:
Big improvement. Strong like bull.
On Feb.27.2009 at 02:31 PM
Bruce’s comment is:
Better, but not great. I do like the period, as well as the missing dot over the i. Looks like the CareerBuilder.com logo to me, though.
On Feb.27.2009 at 02:55 PM
Mark’s comment is:
FINALLY A DECENT REBRAND.
I was getting sick of looking at bad logos.
this one is nice.
clean simple to the point.
I like it.
On Feb.27.2009 at 03:43 PM
AAaron’s comment is:
No registered mark or TM, interesting.
DG3’s comment is:
Don't like the old one or the new one.
On Feb.27.2009 at 06:33 PM
Nisio’s comment is:
Impossible to judge this rebrand until it's seen in context. Taking the mark in isolation, yes it is an improvement, but that's almost soley due to how bad the original is.
On Feb.27.2009 at 07:14 PM
Char’s comment is:
it's ok
On Feb.27.2009 at 08:42 PM
Serviceburo’s comment is:
At first I was a bit taken aback by the dotless i/period configuration, but once I looked for a moment, I decided this is really the strength of this logo. Going beyond just the obvious improvements over the previous logo, this one has just enough unorthodoxy to give the design a bit of tension. Whether you like the logo or not, the fact that it messes with basic visual word recognition in just a subtle way forces you to really look at the thing.
On Feb.28.2009 at 01:25 AM
Frank’s comment is:
Um, Landor *had* to get rid of the i-dot, otherwise they could not have claimed to have done any design work except for picking a condensed sans serif, typing it out in Word and decide for orange as a color.
Oh yeah - the period, okay.That was some sort of an idea at least.
On Feb.28.2009 at 10:50 AM
rant’s comment is:
we all know it's all flufff- everything in marketing is about substantiating it with words, in number of cases "empty" words.
If you were to reverse the same logo actually and argued that the earlier version is the update the argument would have been just as convincing the other way around. Simply power of suggestion.
Car salesmen trick...take it from a car salesman.
pegleg’s comment is:
we all know it's all ???- everything in marketing is about substantiating it with words, in number of cases "empty" words.
If you were to reverse the same logo actually and argued that the earlier version is the update the argument would have been just as convincing the other way around. Simply power of suggestion.
Car salesmen trick...take it from a car salesman.
Angela’s comment is:
The reason why it's "corporation blue" is because it's easy on the eyes, and in any case isn't retina-searing orange
the new logo is very forgettable, and the period is useless. I kind of dig 80's design anyway (shoot me now) so I would have kept it, but if they had to update their image they could have done it better..
On Feb.28.2009 at 09:02 PM
Cyrius’s comment is:
First! :)
On Feb.28.2009 at 10:48 PM
designscene’s comment is:
There doesn't seem to be any improvement whatsoever. It was boring and generic earlier, and its still boring and generic.
On Mar.01.2009 at 04:17 AM
Cristian Loghin’s comment is:
I think that using a "fi" ligature would've made the mark a bit more ownable.
Anonymous’s comment is:
I personally don't think the ligature adds anything. and while I usually agree that lowercase i's should have their stops ... I think it kinda works more than not working here.
On Mar.01.2009 at 04:56 PM
XK9’s comment is:
Not sure about Cristian's hooked f. But I think, as Nick observed (somewhat tentatively) the ligature would be an improvement. Cristian is right about it making the word mark more ownable.
On Mar.01.2009 at 05:17 PM
t-bone’s comment is:
works for me. usually leaving the dot off the 'i' really bugs me, but here not so much. clean, simple and effective.
On Mar.01.2009 at 07:30 PM
tez’s comment is:
Its great that they've done an update it couldn't get much more behind the times, but really...Yawn! I guess that a company that takes as long as they have to update their wordmark won't really be exactly adventurous. I guess the economic crisis has forced them to spend some money to perhaps help with getting the world economy kick started. BTW since we have to live with this one I agree the fi ligature would have looked so much better plus the period at the end... now there's my 2c worth.
On Mar.01.2009 at 11:39 PM
james t’s comment is:
As Andrew Sabatier wrote, this idea belongs to Deloitte, who are already globally established.
On Mar.02.2009 at 01:33 PM
Craig ’s comment is:
I do love this site. Fun to read the detailed analysis of design professionals and even the quick responses with instant suggestions.
If only our feckless leaders in Washington were reviewed with the same degree of scrutiny and detail.
So Fiserv changes, upper or lower, period or dot over the i, in the big scheme of things - does it really matter that much?
On Mar.02.2009 at 05:40 PM
No’s comment is:
BOOOOOOORING.
But as has been said, still much better than the original.
The new mark is incredibly bland, but at least it doesn't look like it belongs on a bottle of motor oil like the old one did.
On Mar.02.2009 at 06:51 PM
.’s comment is:
Speaking of dog-ugly typography, i'm surprised Armin hasn't posted about Pentagram's new logo for the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance.
http://pentagram.com/en/new/2009/02/new-work-worldwide-palliative.php#more
cho_fan’s comment is:
I don't mind the missing dot in the 'i'. Maybe they were going for the Greek 'i' which is almost identical (ι).
On Mar.04.2009 at 02:01 PM
mongoose’s comment is:
Indeed, the old logo with that top stripe off the 'F' could use some updating. I'm not.. too keen on that orange, but it's not a bad color, and at least equivalent to the old blue. The font is nice, simple.
And the period seems good. Strong, indeed emphasizing finality; and a good balance into the space. I'd normally agree I'd like a dotted 'i', but in this case, it would over-busy the upper left; then you try to balance that out and here we are in stripeland again.
Giving this one a B: Improved via simplification, if somewhat forgettable in the end. Even with a better end.
--Mongoose
On Mar.08.2009 at 01:26 AM
Johnny Socko’s comment is:
I work for a vendor to a Fiserv subsidiary, and I always thought that their old logo was not at all reflective of their corporate self-image. I attended a conference almost two years ago in which their President said that they were working on new branding, and I thought, "Hallelujah!" I was starting to think they had abandoned the idea.
Now that I see the results, my reaction is "Meh". It's an improvement, but only because the original logo was so decidedly wretched.
On Mar.28.2009 at 05:34 AM
Comments in Brand New, V1.0 have been closed.
