Super 8 WORLDWIDE
While most people probably hop onto the interstate and drive mindlessly between home and work, I tend to be acutely aware of new visual happenings and two weeks ago my acuity was well-rewarded.
So, on my daily, vehicular ritual I pass by the same two hotels on I-275 twice a day. To the east is a Super 8; to the west is a Days Inn (coincidentally the very same Days Inn that I consider to be my first Florida home). A couple weeks ago, I noticed something strange as I sat idling in stop-and-go traffic, my unreliable radio reliably delivering a mixture of NPR news snippets and incoherent static. It appeared to be…. Wait…. YES! Super 8 had installed a brand new sign complete with a brand new logo.
Now before I critique the logo, let me first make it clear that when I initially saw the sign, It did not register as a Super 8. I instead thought that the Super 8 had been replaced by a pawn shop. A pawn shop ran by some guy who’s sister’s brother-in-law does some desktop publishing in his spare time and was able to whip up a logo in Microsoft Word. Think I’m kidding?
“What’s wrong with it?” you may be asking yourself. Well, nothing, I guess. It definitely got my attention. However, the chain probably paid some designers a LOT of money who—against all of their morals—probably came up with the idea thusly:
Designer A: “So, this is what I came up with, you’ll see that the ’8′ has been sheared. Now it looks like it’s going fast, like their high-speed internet. And up here, this says ‘Super’ because it’s part of their name. It’s kind of laid-back, very humanist. Overall, it says that we’re real people who like fast things.”
Designer B: “Hmmm…. I like where you’re going. The bottom of the ’8′ almost fits in the bottom of the old crest and it gets really close to that far edge. I think that it fits JUST enough so that it creates an uneasy balance that is going to bother people, but they won’t know why exactly. But what about that lowercase ‘r’? Why does it look like it’s in cursive while the rest is a hand-written sans-serif?”
A: “Yeah, I don’t know. I couldn’t find a better typeface for the ‘Supe’ so I just went with it. Whoever designed the font should have made a better ‘r’.”
B: “True. That type designer clearly had no clue how to make a cohesive design. Regardless, I don’t know if I’m buying the idea that ‘Super’ and ’8′ are supposed to be connected. There seems to be too much contrast between the two. Is there some way that we can somehow make the two elements seem inseparable?”
A: “Wait, I’ve got it—when I add a curve swash to the top and bottom, it makes a circular thing happen. Now the viewers’ eyes will HAVE to connect the two together. I mean—come on! There are f*cking swashes physically connecting them. You can’t look at that and say that they DON’T go together now.”
B: “My God. You’re absolutely brilliant. That’s iron-clad logic. There doesn’t seem to be enough contrast between the text and the yellow background. Try adding a white drop shadow. Almost. Add a black drop shadow to the ’8′. Wait—keep the white shadow too. There! Perfect! Can MS Paint save a high enough resolution for this to fit onto a sign?”
A: “Oh, don’t worry. I used Word Art in PowerPoint. It’s totally scalable.”
In the end, it’s just a me complaining about something that looks like it was NOT designed by a professional, even though it more than likely was.
Oh, and to top it off: last week, while driving past those two hotels, I noticed that Days Inn has recently changed their logo as well. Is it good? It definitely looks contemporary with clean lines and gradients, but it kind of reminds me of canned fruit and the typeface will be out of style by the time you finish reading this blog. However, it’s definitely, hands-down, an improvement over the old 70s throwback. Well-played, Days Inn.
Super 8, however, shame on you.
1 comment | blog, branding, design
Chicken Wing Royalty
If any of you are in the know, Checkers and Rally’s Drive-In Restaurants in a small handful of cities have launched wings. To say that they have hit it big would be an understatement. They’ve been performing leaps and bounds above what anyone in the company had predicted and I got first-hand experience with this last night.
We threw a “Wing Party” for one of our friends who happens to love Checkers, to which I catered 55 wings in all “5 kickin’ flavors.” I ordered them at a Checkers that is near the apartment and was treated like I was actually a big deal. First, when I made the order, the girl ringing it up was cheering at the size of the order. Literally cheering. To the rest of the crew and the manager. Even when I gave her my employee discount card, she continued cheering because it was still a substantial order.
Next, as she worked on getting the order fully rang up, I asked her how wings were selling. She told me that they’ve been flying out the door since she got there earlier that day and that they were huge. I said, “That’s awesome. We’ve been working really hard on making them good,” thinking that since she had seen my card, she knew I was from corporate. Instead, she asked what store I was from. “I’m actually one of the graphic designers from Checkers,” I replied. To this she turned to the manager and said “Mamma, did you hear that? I’m privileged! Not only did I take this order, but he here is one a’ the graphic designers from Checkers! Right here! [turning back to me] How’m I doin’? How’m I doin’ with this order? ‘M I doin’ a great job?” Me: “You’re doing an AWESOME job.” Her (to the manager who had now walked over and stuck her hand out the window in order to shake my hand): “D’you hear that? Awesome. I’m doin’ an awesome job!”
All I can say is WOW. I’ve never been in a situation like that before. It was pretty mind-blowing to be treated like a rock star for a job that is so low on the corporate totem pole, especially since I have a great deal of respect for the in-store crews after spending two days learning the ins-and-outs of working the frier and making burgers at a store in St. Petersburg (my brush with fast-food).
Someday it will be like that everywhere, and random people on the street will acknowledge my greatness. Until then, though, I’ll hold on to that random night in January at a Checkers in Tampa.
Jobbing it
So, I’ve finally got a new job. Actually, “finally” is a bit of a hyperbolation—by Friday I’ll have finished up 13 days of working 9-5:30 and I’ll have a pretty big project under my belt.
The place I work for is Checkers Drive-In, Inc. and instead of working the fry line, I’m a corporate designer, commuting from the burbs to down-town and back; wearing slacks, button-up and collared shirts and shined shoes; and hanging out not in a cubicle, but still kind of a cubicle. Yep, that’s me!
Actually, in all honesty, it’s a pretty damn-sweet gig. I have the opportunity to go to food photo shoots from time to time, eventually I’ll get to try new sandwiches before they make it to the masses and right now I’m working on a super-secret project that I can’t tell you about yet, but will as soon as it launches.
On top of everything, there are two full-time designers and one “freelancer” in corporate, which means that I’ll have my hands in a lot of different projects. Plus my manager really wants our in-house department to shine (which I do too; we’re going straight to the top of the QSR chain) and so we’re going to be pushing for higher concept/creative.
The downside? We’ll forever be in the shadow of Rap Cat.