SA Rocks

Yes, we’ve done it. And when I say “we” I mean Mark Forrester has done it again.

I commissioned Mark when he was here in SA visiting his family over the festive season. He crept in to the last 27 Dinner of 2007 and left with the task of redesigning SA Rocks.

The poor bastard! But let’s just have a look at what he has done! (Take a second to look around)

Mark came to the party in a big way. He captured the exciting ideas and positivity of SA Rocks in the colour scheme and interactivity of the new design. I am exceptionally happy with what he has accomplished. I can also confidently tell you that he has had to put up with alot of shit from me (sorry Mark).

If you encounter and bugs, please contact me, if you like it, say so and if you hate, well, tell me but sorry this is it!!

Some new and interesting additions include popularity ratings per post, author listing after every post so you know who posted what and why as well as a slideshow homepage tab, summarised posts (6 of them) on the homepage. Ad space on the left is allocated but not filled. Virgin Money continues their gracious association with SA Rocks so you can see their rocking new ad campaign on the right!

Mark also put together a brand new logo identity for SA Rocks. I think he has consolidated all the missing parts and bits and bobs that was the old SA Rocks.

I couldn’t be happier if I tried. Mark is a genius and i would recommend his services to anyone who is looking for some serious design work.

I’m not going to go on too much about the new design. Let me know what you think!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Why? Why would PicknPay (They’ve dropped the apostrophe before the “n”) choose to throw money at an international company for their new logo?

I don’t get it. Are they trying to say that they have no faith in local designers and marketing companies? Or are they saying that an international firm has a better understanding of what South Africans want to see?

Either way I think it was a bad idea for PnP to go abroad instead of making use of the pool of great minds and designers here in SA.

That money (R100m) is being used to rebrand something like 400+ stores nation wide and launch a new range of products around SA. It seems as though they are competing with Woolworths now in a very direct manner.

I am personally not exceptionally fond of the brand even though it is an improvement on the old one. Here are the two images side by side:

The company that was used is called Landor and is based in the UK. I wonder how this came about? Were tenders put out? Did PnP shop around? I’m interested to know. PnP doesn’t even feature on Landor’s client list on their website…

For now let’s just be glad that PnP is trying to step in to the current century with an attempted redesign.

More reading on the topic here and here.

Popularity: 2% [?]