The logos to the right of the poster show the brand architecture that was implemented across their ads and materials. I have gotten a hold of their brand manual, which I cannot share since it is confidential. But what from what I can see it is labeled “interim” which might mean we will see more redesign in the future. And I must say the architecture and guidelines in implementing the brand was pretty tight. Hats off to Bonsey Design for the good work.

Notice the color combinations of the logos, they are always matched with the official SMART color. The brand manual even goes to the extent of naming the colors of the gradient used for each of the sub-brand, including the icons that are watermarked in the background: circular swirls for Smart Gold, talk bubble for Smart Buddy, the peso sign for Smart Money, mouse arrow pointer for Smart Bro. Below is another implementation of the same logos:

SMART Communications Inc. is, arguably, the top mobile network operator in the Philippines boasting of over 25 million subscribers.  I have written about the recent rebranding of their competitor Globe. Could this be their answer back?  I didn’t hear of any launch party like what Globe did, probably because it didn’t merit one.  It seemed like they just slipped this one passed us.  I only noticed the change when they had their new campaign for the launch of their SmartBro Prepaid product. (Which incidentally also had a logo redesign, see below) The new SMART logo change will not be very obvious to the untrained eye, and SMART will keep its brand equity.

Now what do I think with the redesign?  I actually think that this is an improvement from their previous logo.  The typeface change was necessary.  It makes the logo feel younger somehow, probably because the old logo really used an outdated typeface.  If you would notice the letter “A”, the slant of the inner bridge is no longer facing against the whole type, but now is slanted to the right, making it more unified with the rest.  The “rays” illuminating from the letter “M” also saw some improvements, no longer using another color plus reducing its total number.

I’m not sure if the number “rays” mean anything, but I thought they could still drop a couple of them… specially that one under the logo! Oh my, are we back in the 90s? What’s that swoosh doing there? I think that was an unnecessary “ornamentation” on their part, just additional fluff.  The base of most of the letters looks like it was taken from the old font, just narrowed down a bit and fixed here and there… although the “S” seems to be out of place.  I agree that the old “S” should be changed, but they could’ve used a better one… just feels a little sloppy.

Even with my negative remarks, I think it was a good logo redesign and will not alienate their millions of subscribers.  I’m also happy that these big companies are seeing the value of good branding and design.