Native Instruments new brand identity
Comments
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Well, they asked what people think. "I hate it" is a pretty normal answer for anyone who's not a graphic designer. It's not so much extreme as intuitive and general.
I don't hate it, in fact I feel very little towards it, because it has no context. The old logo signifies everything associated with the brand. It doesn't matter if it was purposely blended by a coherent design or not: there's a history and a familiarity that makes it all coherent now. I can picture Kontakt, Reaktor, Guitar Rig, Maschine, and it all lives in the same space, and that space is marked by the old logo. This is a completely different sign, so it suggests a change... to what? What's the drastic change in content that this drastic change of sign reflects? At this point, we don't have a clue, and instead we have reasons to wonder: do they? This company has been stalling and shrinking since way before it was hip, shuffling the workforce through change after change of management and ownership that was always announced as a beacon of hope, to end up barely reflecting on the product line. Then, out of the blue, they throw this empty gesture. Until it happens to be filled with something real, I can't read more in it than mild confusion.
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Definitely agree with all that... but...
I think we should be able to separate worries about the reason (or lack of reason) for a change of identity from the actual logo itself. I agree that such a big change is somewhat worrying, and comes as a surprise.
But the logo itself is not bad at all. No-one has convincingly explained what is wrong with it as a piece of design. There was a suggestion that the down slope it is out of proportion... but if that was true, then it would be an easy fix... I don't like that folk are hating on a piece of someone's work that is absolutely good work. It's not the designers fault that NI don't communicate effectively with their customer base.
What we should all be shouting about is - why is there a radical identity change? does this mean it's time to go and search for an alterative to the NI software/hardware we use? or does it herald a restart with more investment, closer community involvement, and more regular updates? or is it just easier and cheaper to 'modernise' the branding instead of the products, and everything else will just stay the same?
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I really like it! Good job!
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with more investment, closer community involvement, and more regular updates?
Long-term experience, including current events, shows a complete lack of close involvement with the community... Rather the opposite - they have further distanced themselves from the community, as exemplified by the fact that they did not even conduct surveys among community members (those who are essentially customers who buy their products) before approving the new logo design and new font, i.e. no marketing research was conducted among their customers...
The only question about the new logo was asked in the first post of this thread...Β ... And that question was not asked before, but post factum.
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The feeling is that the decision was made by one person, and he created a new logo and font, without the consent of the rest or when he was told that the new logo and font do not fit, he told them that they do not know this and only he alone knows how to do it right ...Ahahahahah))))))
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That's a terrible idea, unless your intent is to have FEWER people participate in the casual music and plugin talk. I don't "do" discord, and I'm not the only one who doesn't. I already have like 165 forum IDs and passwords to track. No more, please. Stop the madness!
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Oh I noticed it. I just don't get all that excited about it because nobody asks the customer for input until AFTER the decisions have already been made and cannot be revisited.
That doesn't mean the new products won't be good. They sure could be. But I won't know anything until they make an announcement of something. And that probably won't happen until after July.
Besides that, Ableton is having trouble replenishing stock of the Push 3, so that gives AI about 5 minutes to come up with something.
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You know, there's "good fazing" and "bad fazing". Don't forget "neutral fazing".
There are about 82 versions of fazing, actually, but for today we're just going to talk about the three...
Oh, and "fazing" is not the same thing as "phasing". Different things entirely!
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Interesting... I'm curious: Do you guys think this new identity means a significant change that applies to upcoming products (hw/sw) OR will it be the same old (predictable) stuff only with a new logo?
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A bit of a weird concept to me to change your logo based on business practices when those can change so often. Yesterday is to drop a lot of hardware, then drop a lot of content for the software, then subscriptions, then AI shenanigans, tomorrow who knows...
Now that you mention it, this may be changing. For example, Ableton's Push 3 is going to have available a "standalone upgrade kit" which will include a drive, CPU, WIFI, and battery capability. The blurbage on their site says that with further technological advances, they'll make upgrades available even beyond the current Intel i3 NUC platform...and they specifically reference as a benefit, the user won't need to discard the device just to get a more powerful one.
I like that thinking. I long for those days when we could just upgrade a CPU and only have to recycle, repurpose, or just plain dispose of a postage stamp piece of silicon, instead of hauling a whole computer to the hazardous waste collection facility in my town.
And I've done just that with several computers. In fact, my current desktop case is about 10-12 years old. I just keep swaping the guts of it out.
Unfortunately, I have no idea if AI is going to go down that path. They never did that before.
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I expect predictable old stuff with a new logo but wonβt be disappointed if proven wrong.
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Predictable seems an adjective that fits well with NI from some years
Maybe it will be an expansion in HW form πππ
But as ozon says, Iβd looooove to be so ashamed of anything I said because they come out with something really innovative
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LOL, I spent decades working for big corporations. They don't change things up THAT much. When they overstep and get too daring with a logo, avatar, or other kind of brand icon, they usually change it within 6-12 months, but they'll do it very quietly.
As to ending up on products, who knows? If you look at other companies who have changed their logos multiple times over their history, you'll often see 2 or 3 rebranding attempts happening within 2-4 years.
And then you'll know it's a thing when Wikipedia creates a new page showing all the logos on a timeline and what products that logo was on.
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I'd say mixed.
On the plus side, it's a nice design - and typographically it's more interesting than it was before overall. I have it on Kontakt and the new type etc actually looks really smart. However, I think the NI icon is a step backwards. That had instant recognition, due to years of use. It could have been modified slightly to bring it into line with the new typeface, but I don't think completely re-designing it was and the version that sits on the top left of this page feels like it misses that blue & white surround. I could live without the wordmark of the old brand as that was fairly vanilla, but the icon itself feels like it should offer some form of callback to the history on NI. Just my take.
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A significant change would be what actually? I wonder...from play series to expansions all the big profitable products run on platforms which need to stay what they are right now. What exactly could enable a significant change for NI, anyway? It's mostly been evolutions of the same old trusty SW/hw flagships. The Jam was the last thing that was really new and unprecedented, right?
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