Australian Open rebranding: Deuce or Advantage

For those who are following the Australian Open, you wouldn't have missed a tweak in identity for the first grand-slam of the year. The logo has been reworked, replacing the old one which lasted more than twenty years.

The new logo that was conceptualised by Landor Australia in October last year, has invoked reactions on social media. While Indian tennis fans would be satisfied with Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna winning their respective games yesterday, the industry isn't entirely impressed with the logo.

 

Here's their take:

 

Khalid Khatri, head, Infectious Design

 

The first thing that puts me off is the colour palette (unique shade of orange) (referring to the logo above), kinda limits its sophistication. Personally I don't think Australian Open is called AO, but as a wordmark its interesting. Tried to make it simpler as possible but lacks the energy of the game tennis brings in. As, to the old logo, seems more polished.

Ali Merchant, director, Triton Communications

 

The new logo, while modern, says absolutely nothing about the sport, the passion behind it, or anything about Australia. In fact, it seems to build Australian Open into an acronym 'AO' which seems really counter-productive. What makes Australian Open unique is that it is the AUSTRALIAN Open. Not the American Open which could also be AO. Or the French Open which by the AO logic, would simply become FO!

 

Aarish Matcheswalla, co-founder and creative head, OneSeptember

 

It's a massive upgrade on the old logo. They've done a very Bauhaus thing, playing with basic yet strong shapes. The old logo would have restricted them a lot when taken to digital platforms. I feel the shape of the A and the O gives them the flexibility to communicate more with a unified design system. For example, the upward arrow of the 'A' can be played a lot with to create fun engaging designs. People might still identify and love the old logo but that's very dated. Clearly one of the objectives is to adapt to new media platforms and attract Generation Z. I think the change was inevitable.

 

Monish Ganesan, design head, Famous Innovations

 

The logo looks modern, but lacks the emotion and energy that a sporting event shall have. It doesn’t evoke any feeling and could even come across as a logo for something like a digital agency. In the extension they’ve tried to bring out the energy, but the basic logo doesn’t do that.

 

Jaideep Shergill, founder, Pitchfork Partners

 

This logo looks like they wanted a mysterious element added to it. That's going to take some to time sink in and get liked by people. 

 

And there's an obvious similarity between this logo and one of a show I watch (pictured right). The show is older than this logo.