Wyke Farms rebrands via Facebook
Yesterday’s news on Design Week mentioned the rebrand of Wyke Farms, a 150-year-old cheese producer in Somerset selling more than 14,000 tonnes of cheese every year.
Here’s the new logo designed by English firm Tynan D’Arcy, chosen following a vote cast by the farm’s 12K+ Facebook followers.
“The new packaging features a redesigned logo and product descriptor within a large speech bubble. The background scene communicates the brands fresh and natural credentials showing the Wyke Farms landscape with cows, a tractor and an oak tree.”
Quoted from the Wyke Farms press release.
At the time of writing, the old branding is still shown on the Wyke Farms website.
Old Wyke Farms logo
Design Week‘s Angus Montgomery published an update today titled The Wyke Farms Facebook competition leaves a sour taste.
“To add insult to injury, this Facebook crowdsourcing exercise took place following an initial call for unpaid creative work.
“Sure, the resulting designs are nice, but as one commentator put it on our original story, ‘Luck allowed this to happen, not rigour.’”
It’s surprising that considering the brand equity at stake, Wyke Farms didn’t pay for the designs, nor choose the outcome.
7 appreciated comments, click here to add one
Rich
Maybe the publicity generated from producing such a great design for a large company that will be displayed in supermarkets all over is payment enough. Always a sucker for negative space.
Sep 5th, 2012
Stephen Downes
Personally I think it i an excellent logo. Moreover, aside from the fact that designers aren’t paid to create and test a new logo, there seems to be little to fear about a process that involves your customers and followers. Certainly the outcome, in this case, speaks for itself, does it not?
The proposition is that luck allowed this outcome to happen. I don’t agree. The process of crowdsourcing is well known and has documented affordances. Though it is not yet established whether it is superior to a traditional managed research project, it is clear that it is not merely a crapshoot.
Sep 5th, 2012
Lee Newham
It looks rather different here: http://connectedpr.com/wyke-farms/wyke-farms-research/
Sep 5th, 2012
Chris Dixon
“Maybe the publicity generated from producing such a great design for a large company that will be displayed in supermarkets all over is payment enough.”
Funny, I tried paying my electricity bill with publicity once. Power company didn’t go for it so much.
Sep 6th, 2012
Nauman Afzal
No matter how kickass, spec work is still spec work and should not be encouraged.
Sep 6th, 2012
Adam
Lee Newham makes a good point!
The final result is quite different, infact looking at all three initial concepts the chosen design is a mix of all three! not necessarily a bad thing though!
However, I can’t understand why the ‘Facebook’ poll is a bad thing. Surely it’s more efficient and effective than a room of opinionated ‘odd-bods’?
As for free pitching, it’s gotta STOP! It’s crushing the industry; young, fresh agencies trying to break through find it hard enough to make a mark, without working for free!
Sep 11th, 2012
Sean
Spec work should be frowned at, just like smoking is.
Feb 14th, 2013
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