Heineken International this week released a new logo and corporate identity that, according to the press release, “reflects the significant transformation of the heineken business over the past decade”.
The new logo has HEINEKEN in all caps, with a red “spark” (more like a cut-off star) “to represent the spirit and energy of the company’s more than 70,000 employees worldwide.”
The actual Heineken beer brand will remain unchanged. The purpose of this new identity system appears to be to differentiate the corporate name from the beer brand. According to Heineken, the name was in all caps when the company was founded in 1864. Heineken says going back to this style reinforces the strength of the company and reflects it’s long history. At the same time, Jean-François van Boxmeer, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO says the new brand design “better reflects who we are today and the company we aim to be tomorrow”.
This identity system was developed by Amsterdam-based branding and design agency VBAT.
So? What do you think of the new Heineken logo? Do you like it?
Tags: branding, design, logo, rebrand
First impression: looks a bit like an energy company’s logo. I’d prefer if it was just the text and maybe that red star implemented in some other way. Love that typeface though!
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Same here I find the design a bit awkward. I still go for the old ones though.
Hi Shaun,
“Heineken” is a tricky word to deal with. It’s a choppy sounding word yet there’s not a lot of variation in the letter forms (nearly all perpendicular) until you get to the K which really stands out. That being said, I think the all caps treatment works well with the stylized letterforms. I think the green is a good choice, it is in line with the Heineken branding. I’m not sure about the star. I think the wordmark needs something to accent it but a star? Not sure it says much I think it’s clean, well executed, maybe a little uninspiring but hey, it’s beer, so keep it cold and enjoy it with your pizza.
I wasn’t aware that Heineken brewed Strongbow, but apparently they do. The more you know.
I’m agreeing with the colour choices and typography, but I’m wondering why they didn’t try to work the star into the shape of the K somehow. Maybe it didn’t work with the E?
I’m also not sure about the varied thickness of the star when the typeface has all similar thicknesses. The star just kinda looks a bit stuck on, like a lemon stuck on your cheap Mexican beer…
Hi, knowing it’s a beer, i think the new logo gives kind’a cheap impression. It does resemble some cool logos of today, but ones from a wrong industry.
I don’t have much to say with regards to the branding but I will be the first to admit when I initially tired this beer I didn’t like it. I thought it had a foamy taste to it but after 4 or 5 I was hooked and haven’t bought anything since.
It is by far currently my beer of choice but don’t get me wrong I still love a good 24 of MGD once in a while!
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I like the logo. It’s nice and clean and uses my favorite color- red.
Its a unique brand name and the color combination looks good to me too but at first glance it sounds and looks like some eco friendly company. Red is a strong color and this color always looks attractive but the star looks incomplete.
I would have to say that it’s not enough of a change to really be considered a re-branding. When we look at the re-branding that has happened over the past few years with companies like Pepsi, Starbucks or Miller High Life none of them are willing to step out of the box and truly have a new vision of their company brand. I have to give credit to the companies that are willing to put in the time and money – even if they do fail, just look at what happened with The Gap re-branding.
If we really look at the Heineken re-brand, it’s a new font in all caps with the star moved to the front of the logo. Not a very big change in my books and the worst thing is they probably paid millions to have this new look.
Have a look at Seattle’s Best Coffee or MySpace for a re-branding that took the company image into a totally different look.
Just saying, if a company is going to spend millions of dollars re-branding themselves it should be a clearly visible difference.
I’m with Huston DJ on this one I like the logo as long as they don’t mess around with the taste of the beer then they will get my vote every time.
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It certainly doesn’t hurt to shake things up every once in a while…
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I’m trying to apply what I learned from your post on “what the heck is a brand”. So the logo makes me think of communists clipping hedges in a garden.
I’m glad they changed it to a spark, knowing that it was a symbol of European brewers in the Middle Ages, who believed it to have mystical powers to protect their brew.
and it represents a sign of communism.