Ownself celebrate ownself.
Anniversary celebrations are the best - free food, free half-day offs, free (hopefully useful) memorabilia. Just sit back, relax and watch as your company gives itself a pack on its back. That is, of course, unless you are one of the organisers of the event - more work for you!
For company outsiders, anniversary celebrations may seem unimportant to them. However, for brands in the tertiary sector of the economy (they deal directly with individuals as their customers), anniversary celebrations provide great opportunities to build customer loyalty. Thus, brands go to great lengths to leave a positive impact on their customers during this period, often through offering freebies and massive promotions.
Here are some of the notable anniversary design projects of 2017, celebrating milestones of local brands:
For company outsiders, anniversary celebrations may seem unimportant to them. However, for brands in the tertiary sector of the economy (they deal directly with individuals as their customers), anniversary celebrations provide great opportunities to build customer loyalty. Thus, brands go to great lengths to leave a positive impact on their customers during this period, often through offering freebies and massive promotions.
Here are some of the notable anniversary design projects of 2017, celebrating milestones of local brands:
Raffles Hotel 130
Singapore's iconic luxury hotel pulled out all the stops to celebrate its 130th anniversary.
Okay, the logo might not be the most interesting (I believe this stamp-ish logo would fit the Fullerton Hotel better, as it was previously the Singapore General Post Office), especially since the number in the logo basically changes every 5 years the hotel celebrates a special anniversary.
Its anniversary project, Raffles Inspires - A Secret Postcard Sale, was one of the highlights of the hotel's celebrations. The physical postcards which were sold at $10 each were designed by local creatives and former guests at Raffles Hotel. Proceeds were donated to the Autism Association (Singapore).
More from this postcard collection featuring designs by Glenda Chong (CNA newscaster) and Kristen Tan (filmmaker) among others can be found here.
Okay, the logo might not be the most interesting (I believe this stamp-ish logo would fit the Fullerton Hotel better, as it was previously the Singapore General Post Office), especially since the number in the logo basically changes every 5 years the hotel celebrates a special anniversary.
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| I appreciate their efforts in keeping the number swooshes |
Its anniversary project, Raffles Inspires - A Secret Postcard Sale, was one of the highlights of the hotel's celebrations. The physical postcards which were sold at $10 each were designed by local creatives and former guests at Raffles Hotel. Proceeds were donated to the Autism Association (Singapore).
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| Looks like they came right out from The New Yorker cover! Designed by Raffles Hotel Singapore (more postcards of the same theme can be found here) |
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| Designed by Jon M. Chu, filmmaker and director of upcoming movie Crazy Rich Asians |
More from this postcard collection featuring designs by Glenda Chong (CNA newscaster) and Kristen Tan (filmmaker) among others can be found here.
Singapore Airlines 70
For the month of May, passengers on board SIA flights were showered with anniversary-exclusive products, bearing the airline's '70 years' mark.
The wordmark suggests movement, which can be seen through the rough and soft edges of the numbers. The unequal spacing between the outlines of the 7 bothers me because it seems unbalanced at the top, and any positive aesthetic look to the mark. Other than that, the wordmark is straight to the point and easily recognisable.
Singapore Airlines also wanted their digital content to be viral-worthy, and that was exactly what the marketing team delivered. This short story has already received 8 million views, a fantastic birthday present for the brand. '70 years' is shown in its full glory alongside the SIA logo at the 2:45 mark.
70 years later, SIA still remains a great way to fly.
record-breaking profits 'working for you'.
To celebrate, SMRT released a limited edition EZ-link card featuring the most corporate design ever. Because we need more bureaucracy in the company!
NETS also released a special FlashPay card to celebrate SMRT's anniversary.
Not a great choice to choose a black and white colour combination for a celebratory design, unless the brand is an atas one, and especially if the brand is not getting much love these days. SMRT was roasted online for unintentionally creating a funeral card rather than a card which was intended to look classy, with comments stating how 'honest' this card was.
While I'm not big on the anniversary logo (geometric shapes are sooo 2015), the aesthetics of some SMRT anniversary projects pleasantly surprised me. Presenting exhibit 1: the anniversary poster.
Play with the familiar MRT map symbols and you have yourself an instant win. It's a simple yet genius idea, because most people who take public transport would be able to get the reference without seeing the SMRT logo. It's a shame they did not use this, and instead opted for a criminally generic and forgettable design.
Exhibit 2: Moving Stories, 2017 edition.
This commemorative e-book is transparent with the stories shared in SMRT's recent bumpy years - the fatal employee incident and collision was documented in a book, which really shows the brand's earnestness in being more frank with the public.
Design-wise, every page title in the book is beautifully crafted by a a multi-colour font of red, green, yellow and grey, representing the North-South, East-West, Circle and LRT lines respectively. Urgh, why is SMRT shooting itself in the foot?
The wordmark suggests movement, which can be seen through the rough and soft edges of the numbers. The unequal spacing between the outlines of the 7 bothers me because it seems unbalanced at the top, and any positive aesthetic look to the mark. Other than that, the wordmark is straight to the point and easily recognisable.
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| Arguably the most Singaporean ice cream ever |
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| SIA though the ages, which includes a retired SIA Concorde plane (2nd row, middle) |
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| I'm not saying that you should not open the bottle of water, but it could be worth a lot in the future :) |
Singapore Airlines also wanted their digital content to be viral-worthy, and that was exactly what the marketing team delivered. This short story has already received 8 million views, a fantastic birthday present for the brand. '70 years' is shown in its full glory alongside the SIA logo at the 2:45 mark.
70 years later, SIA still remains a great way to fly.
SMRT 30
SMRT's reliability issues still bug Singaporeans to this day, but it doesn't mean that they can't celebrate 30 years of
To celebrate, SMRT released a limited edition EZ-link card featuring the most corporate design ever. Because we need more bureaucracy in the company!
NETS also released a special FlashPay card to celebrate SMRT's anniversary.
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| This gif is life (Source) |
While I'm not big on the anniversary logo (geometric shapes are sooo 2015), the aesthetics of some SMRT anniversary projects pleasantly surprised me. Presenting exhibit 1: the anniversary poster.
Play with the familiar MRT map symbols and you have yourself an instant win. It's a simple yet genius idea, because most people who take public transport would be able to get the reference without seeing the SMRT logo. It's a shame they did not use this, and instead opted for a criminally generic and forgettable design.
Exhibit 2: Moving Stories, 2017 edition.
This commemorative e-book is transparent with the stories shared in SMRT's recent bumpy years - the fatal employee incident and collision was documented in a book, which really shows the brand's earnestness in being more frank with the public.
Design-wise, every page title in the book is beautifully crafted by a a multi-colour font of red, green, yellow and grey, representing the North-South, East-West, Circle and LRT lines respectively. Urgh, why is SMRT shooting itself in the foot?
NS50
NS50 - arguably the most used logo in advertisements by opportunistic patriotic brands since SG50. Mindef saw it coming and provided brand guidelines, which provided specific instructions on how not to destroy the logo. You should probably save a copy of the guidelines before the end of the year in case Mindef archives the page.
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| I would have never expected publicly released brand guidelines from Mindef, but here we are. |
One can have many mock brand applications and guidelines but if the logo has flaws, nothing can prevent one from unseeing it. Notice how small the '0' is compared to 'NS5'. The characters are indeed of the same height, but because of an optical illusion, the 0 would appear shorter than then rest of the characters. This is why typographers create overshoots for rounded character 'tops and bottoms'.
The designers for the NS50 logo likely resized the font size of 0 to match it perfectly with the other characters, removing the overshoot of 0 in the process. While it may satisfy OCD peeps with rulers, it looks optically unequal in size.
I'm not saying that the NS50 logo is bad - the logo is poignant and apt for a year of looking back at the history of National Service. The small error did not ruin the logo, so that's why designers are not kicking up a big fuss about it.
On a side note, I hope we get to see more badass logos in the future, like NS45's logo.
Can't wait to see NS55's logo.
Bonus: Other noteworthy anniversary designs
Clockwise from left: Volkswagen's 10th anniversary in Singapore, Republic of Singapore Navy's 30th, Mediacorp Channel 8's Drama 35, National Museum of Singapore's 130th, Chan Brother's 50th, Ion Orchard's 8th.
Is this really necessary after all
Some might question the purpose of creating elaborate logos/marks specifically for a brand anniversary, among planning a whole bunch of activities to celebrate. Other than the advantages for customers mentioned in the introduction, employees can also stand to benefit.Future employees would get a glimpse of the company's past. The logo would likely follow design trends of that year and would also be the embodiment of that year's celebration aesthetic.
Overall, it can be used as an important building block in fostering a positive company culture. Or to a jaded worker, something to joke about.
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