Diluting the brand? Puffy Hearts and Chihuahua skullcaps -HellForLeathers Take

[Slide Panda]

There is/was already a discussion here recently about Ducati branding other products like, wine, luggage, memory sticks etc and it effect on the brand identity of Ducati.  This is similar, but not the same - this is about the rebranding Ducati just did.  Going from the 'Dynamic D' Circle we all know, to the new shield like thing, or as teh Hell For Leather writer calls it - the "Puffy Heart"

"There's this other bike company, and they dwarf Ducati's sales. They also cross-marketed themselves to the point of selling skullcaps for Chihuahuas. Ducati's puffy heart looks to be made of the same cloth."

http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2008/12/ducati-rebrands-dilutes-identi.html

The writers got so valid, insightful questions that he sent into DNA and didn't get much answer... hmmm.

Read... Discuss...

[corey]

He mentions everything i was thinking, as a graphic designer, the very first moment i saw that logo.
It's trendy, and not timeless/classic. It's going to look dated within 5 years, and they're going to have a hell of a time getting it to reproduce well on anything but paper and monitors. amateurish IMO. but what do i know...

[Slide Panda]

IF you watch the video, they have a rendition near the end, that does away with the puffy shite, the stroked border and type - knocked out to B&W.  But then that begs the question... So you're going to have Two logos now?  One with all the stuff and one w/o?

[swampduc]

I much prefer the previous iteration of the logo. Can't get over the "puffy sticker" look. The marketing/branding doesn't bother me as much. Ferrari has their logo on all kinds of stuff. It still ends up financing racing and the most desirable street cars in the world.

[Raux]

http://www.ducati.com/news/08/news023/news023.jhtml

a heart? a heart? they are saying the corner/curve is the heart of ducati.
that is what the logo represents.

while yes the ducati can outhandle the rest, the corner is not the heart of the bike
i can't believe they killed years of heritage to replace the split D which has been there since the beginning.

oh and then they to do a cheap photoshop embossing effect. i can't believe they did this.

[PragB]

I'm glad that when I ride, the logo of the bike I'm on and the amount of other products they may market is the furthest thing on my mind... Sometimes the internet gives people too much ability to b*tch about absolutely worthless things to b*tch about...

[Scottish]

I much prefer the previous iteration of the logo. Can't get over the "puffy sticker" look. The marketing/branding doesn't bother me as much. Ferrari has their logo on all kinds of stuff. It still ends up financing racing and the most desirable street cars in the world.

+1, I really don't care if they want to be more household... doesn't mean you have to go McDonalds on quality control.

[Slide Panda]

Yep the intorwebz lets anyone vent about anything.  True..

But for me, this is an academic discussion - Design etc is the field I work in.  So besides the fact that I ride a Duc, this is interesting to me on a work/academic level.

As corey noted - the image that's being touted as the new 'logo' really diverges from a number of the established methods for creating a logo/Identity.  It craps up small.  Can't be done (well) as a single color on a solid background - which they seemingly have created a different version to handle this... but that in itself goes against the idea of a logo as your singular, iconographic mark.  

It's jsut a bit odd, since Ducati has traditionally had a strong brand identity, now they seem to muddy the iconography a bit.

[krolik]

The Ducati logo change reminds me of when UPS changed its logo from this:



to this:




The classic UPS logo had been around for over 40 years.

As corey noted - the image that's being touted as the new 'logo' really diverges from a number of the established methods for creating a logo/Identity.  It craps up small.  Can't be done (well) as a single color on a solid background - which they seemingly have created a different version to handle this... but that in itself goes against the idea of a logo as your singular, iconographic mark. 

Same thing with the UPS logo. 

Oh, well, they still pay me the same no matter which logo is on my shirt. 

[Raux]

not the same type change.
for one the UPS is the same shape, uses the same elements "UPS" and has brand recognition already "big brown"

the ducati logo breaks from the previous "split D" which if you look is the ONLY element in ALL previous logos.

[Old-Duckman]

My fav is and always has been the Ducati Meccanica Shield/bike logo.  This new logo harkens back to that to some extent.

Raux, you are incorrect when you say a "split D" "has been there since the beginning"...The Meccanica pre-dates the spilt D designs and it there is no split D on it. I guess you might say that the "Moto Ducati", eagle has what could be seen as a split D. The first mention of the Meccanica decal on a machine is 1958, the Moto eagle doesn't show up unitl 1961 (Ducati Singles Restoration, Mick Walker).

In fact I think the one this one replaces...which so many seem to think it great...Is the worst in Ducati's history (IMO). Circle with a slash...Come on, how creative is that !?

I had a friend who toured the Ducati factory in Italy and she brought me a few stickers, etc...She said that they (the people at the factory) called that logo "The Coffee Bean". Not much better than a heart.

I agree that the Photoshop-like embossing is sorta cheezy but I still like this new logo better than the current one.

[Statler]

Something got lost in translation when they heard US bikers liked puffies, that's all.

It'll be fixed soon enough.

[giordy]

I don't dislike the new logo, even though I agree that it's not classic or timeless. Then again, very few logos are, and I don't think that any of the other Ducati logos were, either.

Is it too trendy? Probably. I guess in a few years they'll change it again, no big deal.

I bought the Ducati historical jacket some time ago; it has 8 different logos, some are nicer than others, but overall they represent a little the evolution of the company and the evolution of aesthetics. In them you can see and recognize the 20's and 30's, the 60's, the 80's... I think it's much cooler this way rather than the same timeless logo for 80 years, even if a couple of those logos are ugly and don't resize well. I'm sure 50 years from now when I'll see the "puffy sticker" logo on the 2058 Ducati Historical Jacket I'll smile and I'll be happy that it's there along with the others.

As for cross-branding, I don't really care. If it brings more money to Ducati to invest, that's great. Ferrari does it too, and it hasn't hurt a bit. I don't think it has hurt H-D either. At the end of the day the only thing that matter is whether they make good bikes or not.

Giordy

[MAXdB]

i didnt realize the new logo was supposed to be a heart.. but after they mentioned that it reminded me of the heart that came out of that ducati design contest a few years back..

[superjohn]

He mentions everything i was thinking, as a graphic designer, the very first moment i saw that logo.
It's trendy, and not timeless/classic. It's going to look dated within 5 years, and they're going to have a hell of a time getting it to reproduce well on anything but paper and monitors. amateurish IMO. but what do i know...

The bad thing about timeless/classic is it takes time to determine whether something is or not. You can never tell right out of the gate whether something is indeed timeless.