Design of the week: Packard Bell
Posted by Guy Chalkley on June 4, 2009
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The first in a regular series, thinking about branding from a design viewpoint – this time from our Senior Designer, Guy Chalkley.
This week’s design focus is on Packard Bell in an identity overhaul…
Packard Bell has launched a new identity, along with a new notebook range designed with Italian car design group Pininfarina.
The new identity, which features the initials ‘PB’ as well as Packard Bell’s full name, aims to help the computer company drive the branding towards the acronym PB over time. It has ditched purple for red, and now carries the tagline ‘Puredesire’.
The ‘red’ in the middle of ‘Puredesire’ is picked out in the appropriate colour, which is intended to communicate ‘passion and desire, as these are the driving elements behind the new brand and the new products’, according to a Packard Bell spokeswoman.
Overall I’m not sure about this. Nice lines yes, but I feel it belongs more to Fiat.
It would seem the car design influence has been a decisive factor in ‘driving’ the identity. Carving out their own niche should have been achieved by a brand this high profile.
It’s easy to criticise but apart from a beautiful graphic execution, the design seems to have no corner-stone of rationalisation from the what we’ve seen so far… just shiny and red don’t do it!
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