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The Few. The Proud. The Designed.

Design as a recruitment tool? Hell no. Never.

It’s been a while since the Army decided to not only revamp their logo, but their whole approach to recruiting. The new logo, reinforces the “army of one” campaign (by Leo Burnett) we’ve been seeing for some time now. One single, strong star. All this accompanied by the redesign of their web site. Not very stellar, but good.

In contrast to the Army’s surpriseless site is the Marines’ own site. An extremely well done site using flash to it’s fullest adrenaline-pumping capabilities (without screaming at you, of course.) Now they only need to redesign their logo to match the energy exuded by the web site.

And finally, the new (not sure how new) Air Force logo. It just looks like it’s going to take off any second. Their web site is not as engaging as the Marines’ but it gets the job done.

Anybody know who’s doing all this work? It must be an interesting project to take on.

Note: This post is not intended to be any type of recruitment thing or anti-war protest or pro-war rally. Just some branding reviews of people with guns and airplanes.

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ENTRY DETAILS
ARCHIVE ID 1382 FILED UNDER Branding and Identity
PUBLISHED ON Mar.03.2003 BY Armin
WITH COMMENTS
Comments
Tracy’s comment is:

Here's the skinny on the marines site:

http://www.designinteract.com/sow/120202/

On Mar.03.2003 at 01:37 PM
Armin’s comment is:

Thanks Tracy.

Designed by Kurt Noble I see. I wonder if Jarvis had anything to do with it?

On Mar.03.2003 at 01:42 PM
Tracy’s comment is:

we may never know...

On Mar.03.2003 at 01:59 PM
anthony’s comment is:

Airforce logo breakdown on idnetity works (link is a frame, stupid frames)

Identity planning and design - Siegelgale

On Mar.03.2003 at 02:26 PM
Armin’s comment is:

>Airforce logo breakdown on idnetity works

Darn. I guess it's obvious I didn't do enough research for this post. Thanks Anthony.

On Mar.03.2003 at 02:29 PM
anthony’s comment is:

By the way, of all the branches I think the Marine corps. logo redesign would be the hardest to work on. They seem to be the most hard core old school branch of our military. Seems to me that would be one hellofva hard client to deal with, much worse that a client who's mom or wife designed their original logo.

On Mar.03.2003 at 02:35 PM
Tracy’s comment is:

YOU CALL THAT A LOGO BOY?

I'LL SHOW YOU A LOGO...DROP AND GIVE ME FIFTY!

On Mar.03.2003 at 02:41 PM
Darrel’s comment is:

The Coast Guard logo/site looks pretty sad now in comparison.

At least they're not using flash on their site. ;o)

On Mar.03.2003 at 03:18 PM
Tracy’s comment is:

ouch.

On Mar.03.2003 at 03:21 PM
Sam’s comment is:

Speaking of branding and war machines, what's up with the i've-got-a-hard-on names of each military action? "Operation Infinite Badass" and all that crap. I've never understood this--is it supposed to be inspiring? Intimidating? Is it somehow an easier form of shorthand than saying "the Persian Gulf War"? Is someone making money off these terms, or is it just my tax dollars hard at work in the business of strategic naming?

On Mar.03.2003 at 05:38 PM
armin’s comment is:

>Speaking of branding and war machines, what's up with the i've-got-a-hard-on names of each military action?

This is to frickin' funny. My favorite is this one (in three acts):

1. Provide Relief

2. Restore Hope

3. Continue Hope

What was the fourth? Fuck Hope?

I think they are just spending your tax dollars Sam. You should start your own operation: Sustain screwing in the ass.

Man, I have a filthy mouth today.

On Mar.03.2003 at 06:16 PM
Sam’s comment is:

Yeah, I like "Open Arms"--I think that was the war against Journey. I'm pretty sure we kicked their ass. Deliberate Forge is nice, and who could ever forget the sweet pina-colada-scented days of Wipeout (a surfing attack on Hawaii?). Red Bean was a failure because there was no rice.

But the best has to be Bevel Edge--I swear, you give the military a few extra Photoshop filters and suddenly everyone thinks it's easy to be a desinger, er, soldier, um, designer.

On Mar.03.2003 at 06:39 PM
pk’s comment is:

um.

did you have your sound turned off? i've got the isub/sound sticks hooked up here. the marines site did, in fact, scream at me. i nearly fainted.

really wish browsers would incorporate their own volume controls. i'm going to go change my pants now.

On Mar.03.2003 at 07:38 PM
Jon’s comment is:

Deliberate Force is also really good. Because I'm moving to Canada when they go with Operation Accidental Force.

On Mar.03.2003 at 09:07 PM
Michael’s comment is:

Jarvis did all the work. Amazing what a chimp will do with some caffeine, some smokes, a keyboard, and no hope of ever escaping.

On Mar.03.2003 at 11:35 PM
steven’s comment is:

>>The Coast Guard logo/site looks pretty sad now in comparison.

At least they're not using flash on their site. ;o)

Yeah, and this site would be so much better if it didn't use HTML. I am yearning for the day that we go back to straight text files.

Sorry Darrel, couldn't resist.

On Mar.04.2003 at 12:11 AM
Kevin’s comment is:

have y'all seen this?

Homeland Security Logo Contest

I can't believe I just typed y'all...

On Mar.04.2003 at 12:24 AM
armin’s comment is:

>did you have your sound turned off?

As a matter of fact, yes. I hadn't noticed.

>But the best has to be Bevel Edge

Ha. I saw that one too, but I couldn't come up with anything clever to say about it. You nailed it brother.

On Mar.04.2003 at 08:26 AM
Sam’s comment is:

>>Homeland Security Logo Contest

Holy. Mother. of.

On Mar.04.2003 at 09:35 AM
Jon’s comment is:

>Homeland Security Logo Contest

In the first 'finalist', is the eagle protecting a purse? Women (and those men with their man-bags) of America can finally relax. Tom Ridge is looking out for them.

On Mar.04.2003 at 02:12 PM
armin’s comment is:

>is the eagle protecting a purse?

It's a carry-all. It's european.

And this is meant to protect your car door.

On Mar.04.2003 at 03:28 PM
Sam’s comment is:

>>It's european.

perfect! i hope it's french.

From the logo-contest.com home page: "Note: in case you were wondering, logo-contest.com is not a government agency."

the funny thing is, i was reading the home page because i was wondering.

On Mar.04.2003 at 03:44 PM
Darrel’s comment is:

The logo contest site was initially a parody, but the people that were submitting logos took it seriously.

Not sure if I should be laughing or crying at that.

On Mar.04.2003 at 03:52 PM
Dean’s comment is:

Speaking of branding and war machines, what's up with the i've-got-a-hard-on names of each military action?

The Art of Naming Operations

On Mar.05.2003 at 10:37 AM
Todd’s comment is:

It seems like CommArts had an article touching on the redesign of the Air Force logo just a while back. I'll try to dig it up tonight when I get home and post a link. The article (I think) mentioned the experience of NASA"s switch from the "meatball" to the "worm" and back again.

On Mar.06.2003 at 12:00 PM