The New Saks Fifth Avenue Identity
Many companies strive towards a flexible and varying identity to avoid looking stagnant, and out of date. Brands such as Google, MTV and now VH1 have managed to make this concept come to life, by altering their logos faster than any fashionista’s wardrobe. By adopting such customized symbols and reinventing their identity from time to time, they adhere to the iconoclasts’ principle which dictates that one becomes bored with viewing the same identity over and over again. Hence, a change is more likely to attract enthusiastic attention. However, this view is heavily argued by traditionalists who remain steadfast to their belief that the more you look at a certain logo, the better it sticks in your mind. It reiterates a sense of recognition and remembrance, thus causing the identity to achieve familiarity and making the product marketable.
Saks Fifth Avenue’s latest visual identity has been praised as a ground breaking concept, especially since it is the first of its kind in the retail luxury sector. The identity design is complex, yet magically simple. The new logo is a revamped version of a previous Saks logo used in 1973. The calligraphic script is the same; however it is narrower and looks regal in white coloring within a black square.
The head designer on this project Michael Bierut is a partner at a top class design firm “Pentagram”. Michael came up with a concept of slicing the new Saks logo into 64 squares, and then asked a theoretical physicist at Yale University to calculate all the possible combinations in which the squares could be arranged. And it is interesting to note that the physicist’s answer came close to a billion possibilities of groupings!
According to the designer, “Blowing up the logo and rearranging the fragments in a million different ways on a grid made the identity much more dramatic.” And kudos to him because the resultant identity is undoubtedly show stopping - a successful variation on the “lets make a pattern out of our logo” school of thought. The spliced arrangements are bold and give a very festive feel to the bags, boxes, adverts and signage.
It is important to note how this unique identity defies the traditional thought of what an identity should be. We are conditioned to perceive an identity as a singular mark fashioned in a stand alone manner and catering to various materials in a number of ways. An emphasis is always laid upon the original identity mark’s visual integrity. This new design negates this point of view entirely, as the foundation mark loses its identity when broken down and rearranged in so many different ways. However, this obscurity of the logo mark within the identity is what makes the identity original yet pertinently links it to the logo as well.
It is a bold move on Saks’ part to embrace the elemental nature of this new identity as a whole.
All in all it is a spectacular use of a classic mark, and then a modern twist applied to it. The large cutouts are elegant, sophisticated and modern looking. The concept is highly refreshing and is a perfect example of simple yet effective graphic design.
Note: Headquartered in New York City, Saks Fifth Avenue is a chain of American department stores. It competes in the elite luxury department store market with Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York. The products include clothing, footwear, handbags, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
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