OpinionWorld brand refresh
Behind the scenes
OpinionWorld is an online community for members to take surveys and express their points of view. In return, members can use their points to redeem gift cards, cash, and donate their points/money to charity.
The logo was created in 2002 by a Dutch designer. It’s been in use for nearly two decades. The look and feel was quite dated so the company wanted to give it a fresh look.
I was the lead designer on this project and worked with a talented copywriter to refresh the branding while keeping the soul of the original design.
Project Kick off
OpinionWorld is a global brand. The logo consists of a logotype and a symbol. It is used with 18 different languages. Local adaptation is a great way to resonate with the local target audience but it also generates a huge amount of work when the company needs to update/modify the digital products (content, banners, landing pages, EDMs, and etc…). Thus, moving forward I suggested using only English “OpinionWorld” that everyone can understand and to leave the logotype away.
I then applied an evolution approach to re-design this logo rather than starting new because the core focus of the business has not been changed.
Research
I think it is critical to do some research to see how other companies use evolution design on their brands. This helps to understand better how brands evolve and adapt to an ever-changing world.
Tone of voice
After the team agrees with the design approach, I work closely with the copywriter to create a new tone. It is a very important step in the project as this is the cornerstone of all digital assets
Brainstorm & ideas sketch out
I have to say that this is the fun part of the project. Based on the tone of voice I sketch out many ideas…on papers. Who said work in an old fashion way is not efficient? This is the part where you can be free to create, make mistakes too.
Digitising
Some selected sketches are now developed on the computer to see how they look on the big screen. This is the screening part.
Discussion
So far in the process, it has rather been a solitary job. It is now time to discuss the ideas I generated with the wider teams and collect feedback. At this step, I often create and use a mood-board to further explore the branding ideas.
After a few rounds of discussion. The team generally select few ideas (we had 3 logos left at that stage for opinion world) to further develop.
Make it real
The senior management team selected two final logos. They had a dilemma on which one to pick. Thus, I requested to work on the logos a bit more than present to them again.
The senior management team then selects the final contenders. At this step, it is sometimes difficult for the client to decide on the final choice as this is a big decision, the revamped branding will be used for many years. For instance, with OpinionWorld, they could not decide between 2 logos. We must give time to time. I take feedback from the company, analyse why they cannot choose, what they like in each logo, and use all this information to finely tune the last proposals.
For example, I think it is always a good idea to show a new logo on different backgrounds and materials. This would help me and others to visualise how the logo looks on the actual environment. In the end, the senior management team is generally able to pick the winning logo
3. Created a focus group and invited various members to join the focus group. Participants were asked to register on the website. During the exercise, we requested the participants to record their experience.
