Economic Downturn Has Not Killed The "Branding" Industry

This economic downturn has, surprisingly, not killed the "branding" industry, which exists for the sole purpose of allowing graphic designers to soak clueless clients out of tens of thousands of dollars for what amounts to a few tweaks of a computer design template. Okay, I said that with my tongue firmly placed in my cheek. Hell, my roots are in graphic design... remember, there was a day when the only job in an agency that actually required you to have a formal related education was... "The Art Director".

Yes, we are the hustlers of a new generation. Change for the sake of change.

Last year Pepsi spent several hundred million dollars on a new logo. Some even figured they had just ripped off the Obama logo. But now an internal document from the branding company has surfaced: "The Rationale" or as I like to say, "The Art of Bullshit" or better yet in this cas; "Breathtaking Bullshit".

See, there's no way the branding agency could charge millions if they just went in and told Pepsi, "Yea, we kinda rotated your old logo a little bit, and made the wavy white line thingy in the middle go diagonal." Instead, they prepared this 27-page document, titled "BREATHTAKING Design Strategy," to prove that this logo is a veritable DaVinci Code of branding, drawing on everything from magnetic fields to the "Golden Ratio." Honest, you read it yourself. The 'Breathtaking' Document Reveals Pepsi's Logo is Pinnacle of Entire Universe.

Pictured is the inanimate, non-dynamic, old Pepsi logo; and after the jump, the "more dynamic and more alive" new logo that Pepsi just rolled out at a cost that will eventually total hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.

I also found this graphic on the Fast Company article on the subject.

Everything is different now.

[Full PDF Document Here]

Further Reading of interest:

http://gawker.com/5150582/breathtaking-document-reveals-pepsis-logo-is-pinnacle-of-entire-universe