New Unum (Provident) Website & Visual Identity

I kind of like the new logo. It seems fresh and maybe a bit contemporary. My first impression was that it had a European feel to it. Most people I have talked to liked the new logo. Though, I have heard several people rail on it.

The dots are supposed to be people. The dots are heads and the letter is the body.

My take is that the designers were asked to humanize the company appeal and one logical form to do so was to introduce human figures into the logotype.

I don't believe they were trying for foreign character set or the heavy metal umlaut treatment.

The blog break is over now... back to writing other things.

Just took a look at the favicon and I agree. They should just use the letter n in the logo. I might mention that to someone.

It looks dumb and childish - something suited for a company that sells toddler playground equipment.

all those german dots distort the pronunciation.

Reminds me of Ikea... also Provident bought Unum... and got a lot of debt from Unum... so if I were Provident, I would want to distance myself from the Unum, not to mention the word Provident in my opinion communicates more than the word Unum...

The Maclellan family who made Provident successful are no longer involved with Unum... Apparently, Unum has triumphed and Provident is no more...

some fancy and overly expensive "design" firm in new york city ripped them off. i'm pretty sure the good folks over at unum don't even like the new identity. personally, i think it looks like dog shit.

OK, Josiah - here are two documents from the public internet. Rather than being uber-hip and dismissive, why not be constructive and show that you could have build a better brand. In fact with these two documents out there, lets see if the Chattanooga design community can come up with something better. You know Unum has done business with small firms for design work, in fact part of the work on the web for this rebrand was done with a firm in Portland ME not much bigger than Coptix. If you really aspire to be a design leader for Chattanooga, don't just dismiss - show that the thinking could have been better.

The first is a video that shows what the story the company is trying to sell. This video has been playing pretty much ad nauseum on the corporate campus this week.
http://www.atomicfilms.com/pub/unum/UnumBrandVideo2007.wmv

Then the second document is a early idea sheet of possible brands. This was printed in the Portland ME newspaper on Tuesday.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/business/070406unumlogos.pdf

You can see the brand consultant used to do this work. You should look at thier branding to know who you are up against. http://www.thegateworldwide.com/

What kind of brand would you have chosen? Would any work?

First off, a logo isn't a brand, it's part of a brand. The brand is everything you do, from the conversations had between Unum customers and the service reps, to the insurance forms, to the way you conduct meetings, to your website.

The logo (which is part of the visual identity) should be an expression of your brand values, which are statements indicative of who Unum is (or wants to be, or wants to be perceived as). It's not about being "cool" (though differentiation, which is important, and often times is "cool, is part of the convo), it's about communicating accurately and effectively. Style is only part of the equation, and most of it isn't relative or what would commonly be called "subjective".

As just one example of the problem of the new visual identity and the examples you sent me indicate: a common flaw found in many second class "branding" firms is that most of the logos designed are overly-governed by the unique sound of the word itself. It is obvious looking at those examples (and the current logo) that the the funky sound of the word "Unum", a tech-ish & future-ish word, was reflected in the proposed and final logos. It's an understandable mistake, yet the conceit inherent to the mistake doesn't have anything to do with conveying the Unum brand values, which is what SHOULD govern the development/design of a visual identity.

Further, as to "The Gate", lets do the rundown:

1. Crappy flash website, check
2. Bland and/or outdated color scheme, check
3. Piss-poor navigation posing as "inventive", check
4. Seriously lame portfolio, check
5. Non-integrated, check

Their work isn't creative, inspiring, or compelling, and it doesn't what it's supposed to do.

Now, if Unum really is just another bland, soul-less, corporation, then I suppose the new logo works just fine. But, I tend to hope for better, if only because they're my neighbor, and supposedly better than Cigna (who, on a side note, has a much better visual identity and website than Unum, across the board).

Finally, I'm not a designer. I don't personally "do" logos, though I've had the pleasure in the last couple of years to work with some rather talented folks in the research and design of a few visual identities, and it's been a blast and, IMO, largely successful. That said, I know the people I would have hired to do the new Unum visual identity, and we would have submitted one, just one logo for Unum to take or leave. Because...

When it comes to visual identities it's like dealing with a Chef. You tell them generally what you want, and they bring you the dish they think will work the best. If you're gonna send it back, it'd better be really, really bad and you'd better be able to say why beyond "I just don't like it". This is also why you want to get somebody really really good (and The Gate is not).

And heck, just 'cause we're talking about it, when you're a company like Unum with the budget like Unum has, why on earth wouldn't you pony up the dough to go with the best of the best. Lack. of. Vision.

They should use that same font but it should say-

"Unum- we believe in nothing"

Josiah, I am confronted with dog shit all the time. While I'm not hip on the new look I will say it looks and smells better than the alternative.

I think the UNUM logo is not anywhere close as bad as the one of the Foodworks restaurant in North Chattanooga. When driving down Manufacturers Road I always think someone used strips of packaging tape to make the letters for Foodworks.
Cheap and homemade feel.

The UNUM logo has nothing to do with "German dots" and while I can see where they were heading with it, I am not very fond of it.