In our first post for the new year, I'd like to bring to your attention a little thing that Duane Reade is doing to NYers. If you're not familiar with Duane Reade, it is a local pharmacy chain here in NYC in the same vain as CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid. First of all let me say this, because I haven't said it before on Word Vomit, but Duane Reade sucks balls for their new hideous designs. They're logo is wretched and the new color palettes they've introduced makes me want to urinate on the Pantone color book that was given to their graphic designer(s).

With that being said, not only have they introduced pastels of doom, they had the nerve to re-do their Spending Rewards Program. This was the only shining thing about the store. In these uncertain economic times, us NYers have come to rely on DR's rewards system. For every dollar you spend, 1 point is given. For every 100 points you get a, $5 coupon is issued. This was good. Those things came in handy, because you could get about $10 every month or so from DR, if you spent enough and sometimes you could. We've come to rely on them. It was a nice gift. Clearly, they saw this and decided to ruin it. So to pay for their expesnive and sucky store remodeling and to pay those awful graphic designers who changed their look, they had to go say fuck you NY and then proceeded to rape us in the face.

They had a mandatory change to the new RewardsFlex program. So this is how it goes now:

For every dollar you spend, 2 points are given. Pretty cool.

For every 500 points you get, $5 coupon is given out to you. Wait what the fuck?!

I roughly had to spend $100 to get $5 back. Now I have to spend $500 to get $5 back? Are you fucking kidding me? I have to spend $500 in Duane Reade? Best Buy doesn't even have the balls to do that and they sell fucking tvs and other shit!

For once I am utterly appalled by this and I wanted to channel my Jewish brethren and write a stern letter of disapproval and vow never to shop in their store again, but then I said to myself, where the hell will I shop at 1:OOAM when I need something? Fuck. Trapped like mice in a cage. Sneaky bastards. They've cornered me with this horrible points system. Do you know how long you could go before you'd spend $500 in Duane Reade? You could go months before you saw a $5 coupon. I'd rather not use it now.

Thanks very, much Duane Reade. I've never willing gotten raped in the face before until now and I've got to tell you -- if you're gonna be raping people in the face like this was Ozwald Penitentiary at least have the decency to have Christopher Meloni around. Fuckers.

So, the Under Consideration off-shoot, Brand New, has posted their Best and Worst Identities of 2009. I have to admit, I was surprised to see AOL coming in at the top of the list for best rebrand, though upon reading the reasoning for it, I can appreciate it a bit more.

The list is pretty solid on both sides. My favorites from the "best" section are probably Syfy, The New York Public Library, Nickelodeon, and (funnily enough) My Little Pony. I'm also partial to El Banco Deuno.

From the "worst" list, I'm on board with most. I never particularly cared for the Art Director's Club logo, but it's also kind of iconic at this point. Changing it to something so un-unique and... pink? I don't get the thought process there. The only one I'm somewhat iffy on is the one for Yale University Press. I didn't much care for the old logo and there's nothing wrong with the new one - which they pretty much say on their explanation on the site. I just don't get why it would be listed under worst of the year if the only reason is that they're sad to see the other one go. Duane Reade is conspicuously missing - or maybe it was 2008 and missed the cut off? They should have made an exception.

Now, I am a type fanatic, but I'm going to have to admit: I knew it was a face intended for screen purposes, but I hadn't realized that Verdana had become such a blight on design society. Sure, we know about Papyus (boo, hiss) and Comic Sans (screeeeeeeeeeeee), but Verdana? Causing this kind of hatred, outrage, uproar and even the creation of one of those dreaded and all-powerful Let's All Join this Group 'Cause My Friends Did and It Might Make Me Look Cool Facebook Group? Really?

Okay, sure, it's not the most strategic branding move:

The company has its own brand typeface that's served them well for decades, so swapping for something so generic is a bit bizarre. I'm sure that they have enough in their budget to have commissioned the creation of an updated character set - though, apparently, their decision was heavily impacted by their desire to be able to use the same typeface both in print and on the web. I'll say it again though - their branding has served them quite well for decades, so why they felt the need to make this change now is a bit strange. There are ways around non-web friendly type - and most branded companies aren't using those faces for every aspect of their brand - just the big stuff, you know?

Additionally... it looks like crap. Listen, I don't mind Verdana on screen... but in print? Well... here's a side-by-side comparison of their 2009 and 2010 catalogues (click the photo for a larger version and article):

The old standard just... comes together a bit better than the new. Verdana is one of those simpler fonts, you know? Kind of like that one friend in the group... the one you think is very nice, but who you're sure is also mildly retarded? Kind of like that. It means well, but there are just certain things it cannot do - for example: be used in print.

All of that said... I still don't get why it's sparking such massive anger and disgust. I mean, with some of the reactions I've read, you'd think IKEA had decided to start using Papyrus on everything. Imagine that, people. It could be much worse.

Also... it's IKEA. I mean... does that really impact your day to day that much? Are you subbing ikea.com for your daily porno fix? Are you going to tear all your hair out and kill the mailman in a fit of rage when the catalogue comes? Or spontaneously vomit every time you enter one of their stores? There have been much more unfortunate design foibles in recent branding history (Duane Reade's rebranding comes to mind, as does the Tropicana packaging fiasco). I suppose, if Tropicana is any indication, anything can happen - maybe the Facebook flock will swoop in and restore Ikea Sans to its rightful place in the stack of catalogues you keep by the toilet. Honestly, though, why not just go do your shopping and choke back the vom - this one's really not worth the clean up on aisle five.

Was going through a couple of sites and happened to stumble upon this great designer.

Matt Elwood: Graphic Designer out of Newcastle. He's still finishing up his studies at Northumbria University.

Love his work!

• Great work on branding.
• Love the way he photographs his work for his portfolio .
• Layout of his site is just great.
• Well thought out concepts and ideas in all his work.

Check it out LINK

Terrible logo or MOST terrible logo?

So, after all the speculation, the Detriot Lions have, in fact, changed their logo. I gotta say, I love the design they came up with. It's close to the original, yet has a more aggressive and modern look. This is very similar to the redesigns seen with the Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Rams, and the Atlanta Falcons.

The only problem is.....

THE TEAM STILL SUCKS! PERIOD. They haven't even been decent team in the past few years. Last year being the worst, losing every single game played. Hopefully this wasn't a huge waste of money.

If you know me personally, you would know that I eat everything. Regardless what it is, I'll at least give it a try. Yet, "DELICIOUS SALAD COOKIES", that's something I just might have to pass on.

One viewer's thoughts on Pepsi's new logo.

Yeah, that's about right.

Personally, I'm not a fan of either treatment - the old one just looks kind of cheap and generic and the new one looks... like a cheap and generic place trying to be upscale. Dude, it's Duane Reade. Not exactly the epitome of high end we're talking about here. The black and white is a bit dramatic, no? I think the type treatment beneath the new mark works nicely, but the mark itself looks like something that would have been good if the person who designed it didn't suck.

The old logo, as generic as it was/is, at least has some sort of uniformity and flow to the design. It makes sense and at least appears to be well thought out. The alignment on it is perfectly constructed - the top of the D curves into the R, the vertical width of the horizontal bar in the R is perfectly matched to the empty white space created negative space where the letters don't quite merge. There's a rhyme and reason to this design. It makes sense and it worked. I would see it and immediately know that there was a Duane Reade up ahead and I could stop in and pick up whatever miscellaneous thing I needed.

The new logo, for all it's upscale wannabe dramatics, looks extremely sloppy, when you get right down to it. The circle/D/R overlap is poorly executed, as is the connection of the two letters. The type beneath it would look okay, though since they used an uppercase R in the actual mark, it looks like the two don't really mesh. Where it should flow together as a whole, there's an oddness created by the serifs on the R and the empty space around the D curve.

As a whole, the effort looks very slap-dash. Like the designer thought... whatever, it's just Duane Reade... which is pretty much what I said a few paragraphs back, but I wasn't the one being paid to do the job. I guess it doesn't really matter. I don't really go to DR to admire their awesome design skillz... usually it's just cause I need some toilet paper or something, but still. It's going to take some getting used to when this one rolls out all over and the usual blue and red are gone.