REBRAND FOCUS
Completed by its in-house team, the file-sharing service’s visual overhaul includes a logo that places greater focus on the ‘we’...
We critique the WeTransfer rebrand from three different perspectives
“WeTransfer not only looks different, but has been revisited from the inside out. Our ties with the creative community have been strong since day one, and we believe that our new brand is just the simple expression of that. We believe that we are living in an awesome era in which ‘we’ is greater than ‘I’, and collaboration is key. We are humbled to be one of the favourite tools for creatives all over the world. Being part of it is an incredible honour. This is represented in our new symbol, elevating the concept of ‘we’ as a powerhouse for everything creative.”
“This update is more polished than its predecessor, but the overly bulbous ‘w’ does conjure some unintentional visual associations. I see a tooth as well as a screaming mouth. Juxtaposed with the cute, smiling ‘e,’ the ‘w’ seems to shout: ‘Come get your files!’ while the ‘e’ giggles, ‘Pwetty pwease?’ But my ambivalence towards the logo dissipates when considering its place in a larger, beautifully refreshed, branding experience. The logo is mostly unnoticeable on the website, allowing other elements to take centre-stage. Clean type, intuitive UI, playful illustrations, and simple, whimsically animated geometric shapes called ‘particles’ work harmoniously in a fun, friendly, approachable visual language. The whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts.”
“I use WeTransfer. It’s a solid brand with a good product. But the ‘we’ mark is an amateurish failure of brand identity. It is odd, and bad. Odd seems to be its intention. Bad is my professional aesthetic judgment. It’s an abstraction of letter shapes, which is a common approach to brand mark design. But this abstraction delivers nothing more than two amorphous letter blobs. To borrow from Gertrude Stein, ‘There is no there there.’ With no concept in evidence to support this design, it’s just bad typography, and an ineffective brand mark. This refinement was reportedly an attempt to improve the gestalt of the previous design, and deliver a more cohesive whole. But in my view, this is merely a retooled version of the failed predecessor.”
JON STAPP Founder and creative director, Atomic Vibe www.atomicvibe.com
LASZLITO KOVACS Creative director, WeTransfer www.wetransfer.com
BILL DAWSON Creative director, XK9 www.xk9.com