Hasta La Ideas

Lippincott’s new identity for office supplies company Viking uses doodles in an attempt to link the brand to office life

Viking (old logo above) is a European office supplies company owned by Office Depot. Lippincott’s UK office helped it reposition itself in a market dominated by discounting and free gifts to buyers. As part of that, a new identity system was introduced based around the idea of the doodle – something, Lippincott reasoned, that many people associate with being at work.

Thus the new, redrawn logo (shown top) is matched with a doodle drawn, apparently, by Lippincott creative director Lee Coomber.

The idea really comes alive, however, when applied to products such as copier paper

packaging

and delivery vans

It is also appplied in the 30 million (yep) catalogues that Viking has just sent out to customers across Europe

and on the website, of course

With such an approach there are worries about how sustainable it might be in the long term (will the idea quickly wear thin?) but here perhaps there is an opportunity for the doodle to be continually refreshed using a roster of illustrators and artists. If Viking could ‘own’ (sorry for the jargon) the idea of the doodle, they could do a lot with it in future.

A distinct improvement from the previous look at any rate, not least as a result of dropping the clutter of the ‘Home Depot” business line and the scaling down of the giant size ® that so many firms insist on now.

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