Holiday Inn and the Life and Death of Rick Astley: Day 06

So, I’m not sure if Florida is just overly behind the times or what, but I noticed yesterday that one of the local Holiday Inns that I passed on the way home from work had a new sign, printed on a vinyl banner, wrapped around the old sign. To me, that said “New and in-progress” but after doing a little searching, it looks like this re-branding has been going on for quite some time. So, for some of you, this may be old news. For me, though, it was quite a shock.

To be honest, when I first saw the sign, I couldn’t remember what the old logo looked like. I remembered green, and white, but not a whole lot else. The Best Western crown kept popping up, as did the old Comfort Inn sun, but I never would have remembered the old script were it not for the interwebs. Thank you, tubes, for helping jog my memory.

A lot of people seem to feel very passionate about this re-imaging of this hotel chain, as can be seen in the comments of the above link. Terms such as “typographic genocide” and “generic” are thrown around, but I don’t necessarily think that either of those are the case. Sure, the typography has changed a LOT from a script to a slightly rounded sans serif, but I don’t think at all that it has necessarily killed the brand.

It seems that a lot of the nay-sayers cite nostalgia and the uniqueness of the script as being key reasons why Holiday Inn should have stayed the course. Admittedly, the logo isn’t as unique as it once was, but it’s also no longer dated. I’m not sure if any of my two readers are aware, but there’s currently a lot of debate as to whether or not cursive hand-writing should still be taught in school. If a writing style is being wiped out of a culture’s communicative lexicon, does it hold the same meaning as it once did? Would future generations (or even kids today) look back at the old Holiday Inn typeface and recognize it as humanist, if they no longer understand how cursive used to work?

Personally, I like it. I don’t know what it is about the mark, but to me it finally feels purposeful. It also seems more lively than the stodgy and antiquated script of yore. Even though the typeface has been neutered of its charm—charm used very loosely—the type has a very human flair, especially in the rounded terminals, the crossbar of the H and the bowl of the y’s descender. The green is generic-as-hell (nothing said Holiday Inn like that weird forest green) but it’s not entirely off-brand.

So, is it good? Yes. Will it last? Probably not. Is it better than poop on a stick? You bet.

As for little Rick Astley, I saw a sprout today. However, the seed was ON TOP of the soil, so I ended up burying it again, just in case. There is still hope.

April 28, 2009 at 5:19 pm | Branding, Design, Random | No comment