Thoughts from the Dirty City

On Monday Walmart announced it will update store logos as part of an ongoing evolution of its overall brand.

This is what the new logo looks like. From what I can gather the plan is to implement this little by little in stores across the country. The new signs will be a rusty orange color with the logo reversed out in white.

The new look is supposed to be part of the overall evolution of the mega-stores transition into “a more family friendly shopping experience” (as I see it, something more akin to Target). The changes have been going on for a while now inside the stores. New displays and signs. They haven’t come out and said the attempts are to be more “Target-ish” but clearly that is what is happening.

With that in mind I think this logo falls far short of the mark. I almost like what is happening with the typography. It looks really familiar, almost like they swiped the typeface used to create the Wii logo. I love that they finally made it one word and got rid of the all upper case. The color is good too. A lot more approachable as compared to the old standard navy blue logo. What kills it for me is that flower/sun/star/thingy to the right. What is it? Why is it there? It looks to tech-ish, too clean, and way too un-walmart.

I am not a big fan of Walmart to begin with. But they are what they are, and the old almost generic logo portrayed that a little better than this new one. I get that they are trying to change their image. I just don’t think this is going to achieve what they are going for.