Duct Tape Marketing - Latest Comments in Intuitive Logo Design?

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Alan Bonjour — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:09:46 -0000

First thing I noticed was the two "people". I had an immediate sense of comfort out of it, a sense that this was a program nbot to be overwhelmed by as it was personable. Also I think that I would not be the only one using it. Of course these are from the perspective and approach of what I would expect of someone new to their products or to computing.

On the downside, it doesn't do a thing to tell me what it is that the company does, other than "intuitive" products.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

JB — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:34:05 -0000

I think the logo does a good job of presenting the weakness of Intuit as a company. The last thing I would ever accuse them of is being people or "UI" oriented and I think the logo does a good job of creating that illusion. Lets face it, though expensive, creating a logo is much cheaper than creating the corporate culture or software that actually delivers.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

ricardo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:44:36 -0000

i think i'ts simple like it should be but it reminds me the tmn logo (www.tmn.pt).

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Ryan Hyde — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:19:28 -0000

Our logo has the dots representing people too. familylink.com. Everyone we ask hates our logo. In fact an executive from Logoworks was at our office yesterday and poked fun of it telling us the logo has got to go (he promised it wasn't because he wanted his company to create a new one for us).

I think Intuit could have a done a better job. I don't think the little people in their logo matches the image of their brand. The dots as people is so 5 minutes ago. Intuit is a creative company, I wish their logo did a better of showing that.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

JudyAnn Lorenz — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:14:30 -0000

When I see that name Intuit, i'm reminded of that little thing you see on craft items--little circles, usually wooden, called A Round Tuit., buy on and you 'get a round tuit'. I read Intuit as being In to it. It is a restful blue in a marketing time when there is an awful lot of chartreuse

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Jodi Kaplan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:23:03 -0000

I kept looking at it and wondering why the "t"s were dotted and not the "i"s. I do like the u and i idea (once you explained it to me). Now, if they would fix Quickbooks for Macs...

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

NeilC — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:36:14 -0000

Somehow the dotted T's distract my eye.
I see the T's as "upper case" in the middle of a "lower case" word.
Sorry, but it doesn't really work for me, I see a confusion of upper and lower case rather than a coherent logo.
This is a shame, because I love the products and scarily, I can go back a an awful long way in that 25 year history!

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

web Content — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:26:16 -0000

I'm another one of those who comletely missed the resemblance between the "T"'s and people, I also would never have guessed about the connection between "U" and "I" had you not mentioned it... Guess that's why I'm not a brand consultant...
However I did think the reflection of the "UI" off the "IN" was rather clever....

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

PPC — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:06:53 -0000

Having come from a design and marketing background (ran a signage business) a good logo always resonate and I must say that the intuit logo is really a fine example of graphic design.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Jon Moss — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:30:13 -0000

reminded me somewhat of the redesign of Unum's logo. www.unum.com Heard that a Scandinavian outfit charged them $1 million for it.

Did Intuit use them as well, or just get inspiration from it? Who knows

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Steve O'Sullivan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:54:47 -0000

I wasn't sure at first if I liked it, but the more I look, the more I like. Probably would have missed the subtleties if you hadn't pointed them out. Thanks!

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

MarketingTwins-Randy — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:14:15 -0000

I've stared at this new design for 10 minutes - wanting to dislike it so I can give one of those profound reviews of why they really missed the mark. Can't really do it. I wouldn't have chosen it perhaps because it does seem too cute. But if you're gonna go cute and clever, I am wishing somehow the "i"'s could be leaning / curved at the top as if the t's magnetically stole the dots away. Seems like that would do better that way. If it was only one dot, I can wholeheartedly agree, but the two just seems to forced. So I like, then I dislike, then I like again, and then dislike again. I guess that makes me ambivalent. I looked at it on their website and I guess it doesn't fit well with the logos on their products (big thick bold typeface, i.e., QUICKBOOKS). Wonder if they'll change those as well?

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Gary S. Hart — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:37:14 -0000

The dotted T's grabbed my attention and made me think and I like it.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

LindaBusiness — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:59:29 -0000

I think the new logo looks great. Speaking of re-branding, what do you think about Kinko/Fed Ex getting rid of the "Kinko?" Personally I think it's a big mistake. Kinko has been around so long it's become a verb. - Linda

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Ross Kimbarovsky — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:28:41 -0000

It's a nicely executed update to make the logo more contemporary and relevant to Intuit's customers. And the small touches work - here you have both concepts from "dot the i's and cross the t's" - very clever. Great job, Intuit. There are so many ways this could have been a disaster - for a comparison, take a look at our recent blog post about Italy branding itself in 2007 and the controversy that ensued.

Ross

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Laura Olsen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:36:43 -0000

Very tastefully done. I missed the "U & I" bracketing you mentioned, but immediately felt the balance of the "in" and mirror of "ui". It's interesting how the dots made a little visual leap over to turn the T's into people elements - a twist that turns a word into a readable graphic. Nice. :-)

Who designed it?

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Logo Snob — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:33:49 -0000

A couple things come to mind about the new Intuit logo.

The dotted T's/people are a bit confusing if you look at it, I agree with Lary. More importantly, the fact that the various capitalization schemes, coupled with the dotted T's/people make you look at the logo a second more than you should to get it. In other words, the logo is not as "intuitive" as "Intuit" should be.

I also think that ultimately, the Intuit logo is less important than the logos of its flagship products - Quicken, Quickbooks, TurboTax, etc. There is not nearly the equity in the Intuit brand as there is in these products. That said, I think this change, even after 25 yrs, isn't that big a risk for them. Not to mention, their old logo sucked.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Jason Rodriguez — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:31:50 -0000

For me, the dots compromise the flow of reading the logo. In fact, even after looking for a couple minutes the dots didn't register as people until you mentioned it.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

ducttape — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:04:08 -0000

@Lary - all that thinking about stuff has got to hurt

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Jared Leavitt — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:57:51 -0000

Really good assessment...Thanks for following us!

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

msmiciklas — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:44:10 -0000

I love the logo - too often marketing tries to appeal to the lowest common denominator. In this case, Intuit is embracing the idea that their customers are smart. Clever branding. Clever product. Clever customers.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Lary Stucker — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:35:23 -0000

I like the logo but I didn't see the dotted "T"s as having human characteristics. I suppose if you were to lower the the dots closer to the top of the "T" it might look more like a person.

Another thought that crossed my mind is that this could be seen as a negative play on the old saying "dotting your 'i's and crossing your 't's." Because they have "accidentally" dotted their "t"s.

Re: Intuitive Logo Design?

Kira Wampler — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:33:30 -0000

Thanks for the nice post about the new logo. We'd love to hear what people think about it.