Orange, another orange, and pink: PwC rebrands
If there's anything Chartered Accountants excel at, it's more than just numbers. It's unsolicited design critique.
Really PwC?
Your alumni are in shock.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers has completed their rebranding as of yesterday, and people who work for, used to work for, or simply associate with PwC are scratching their heads at the rebranding that just came through.
Before we get to the colours, check out the video on their home page. Let me know how hard you cringe.
It's great fun to watch the senior executive at the 0:55 mark stating that PwC
is "building relationships, enhancing value". Their new slogan is "Building relationships, creating value."
The caption on the
screen even says "creating value."
I'm curious to know: did they want to be "cool" and show a related word for "creating," or did they goof, have him record the wrong line, and decided to go with it anyway and hoped no one would notice?
I mean really, how are they trying to position themselves?
Then there's the matter of the colours.
The colours children, the colours!
I'm going to limit my comments mostly to expressions of disbelief. And those of others: as one Big Four person remarked, "now they look like a defunct tech company's logo".
If you really want to geek out, you can get a sample of the other website colour system by right-clicking the webpage, and viewing the "background image." You'll see this.
The most painful(ly earnest) thing about these re-branding efforts is the amount of crazy newsletters, memos and contests that accompany a change like this, to convince everyone to buy in.
The CICA in Canada did their own rebranding thing and had a reason for every colour they chose. Really, there's a reason they went with blue, gold and grey. Plus the green that makes a quasi-plus sign. You can only imagine the careful thoughts and really deep thinking that went into the design of this colour scheme.
I do applaud anyone who's bold enough to try something risky that makes them stand out - as the saying goes, "any publicity is good publicity," at least in show business. I'm curious to know what you think about all this. Feel free to leave a comment weighing in with your thoughts. It's probably easiest to drop in on this discussion.