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Final yr, when Overstock introduced it will change its name after shopping for a bankrupt Mattress Bathtub & Past, it was rapidly hailed as one of the best rebrands of all time. However the model’s new dad or mum firm, Past, nonetheless wanted a brand new brand. Final month, board member Marcus Lemonis did one thing unconventional—and usually frowned upon within the design group: He put out a name on social media asking for designs on spec.
“I’m paying $10,000 for the most effective design of this icon and brand,” Lemonis, who can also be CEO of Tenting World and star of CNBC’s The Revenue, told his followers on X. “Should be a shade of inexperienced. Should be internet and app pleasant. Unfold the phrase.”
After all, the value of a brand new brand can fluctuate broadly, from a couple of dollars on Fiverr to upwards of $1 million, which Pepsi reportedly paid for its rebrand in 2008. However even on Fiverr, many designers don’t work on spec, since there’s no assure they may ever be compensated for his or her efforts. Nonetheless, lots of of submissions for the brand new Past brand rolled in from the lots on social media, which ranged from bland and basic to strange and absurd.
This week, after monthslong requires Lemonis to take over management of the company, Past introduced Lemonis could be its executive chairman. And Lemonis revealed he’d chosen new branding for Past: a concept from Sightbox, a Fullerton, California-based studio that works with tech startups. Inside 5 weeks, the studio delivered a brand new visible id together with a new website.
[Image: Sightbox]
“We pitched them the entire web site and model system, an entire bunch of stuff, an entire bunch of inventive, and so they principally employed us on the spot,” Sightbox cofounder and CEO Charlie Hinojosa tells Quick Firm.
The brand Sightbox created for the model isn’t going to win any awards or be part of the Nike Swoosh or McDonald’s Golden Arches within the pantheon of iconic model marks. However in graphic design, generally you get what you pay for.
[Image: Sightbox]
The brand new brand comprises a round form inside a sq.. The sq. is meant to evoke a house floorplan, says Hinojosa, with corners that jut out to recommend growth. The round form seems to be like 4 seats round a desk.
Between the emblem and the web site, the trouble comes throughout as slightly slapdash, which is sensible contemplating the venture’s limitations. The pictures on the web site have been primarily generated with AI, Sightbox tells Quick Firm. It used Midjourney and the corporate’s model technique to create photographs of key advertising personas primarily based on gender, age, ethnicity, and extra, whereas overhead pictures have been designed to reflect the emblem with sq. symmetrical environments, “which might have been virtually unattainable with inventory,” Hinojosa says.
[Screenshot: Beyond]
This week, Past reported a $161 million Q4 loss. Its former CEO, Jonathan Johnson, stepped down final yr within the face of stress from a hedge fund that blamed him for the corporate’s poor monetary efficiency.
Velocity and price have been essential elements in its design selections, the corporate confirmed. “We have been keen to hook up with shoppers by using life-style photographs, displaying actual households in actual residence environments,” says Carlisha Robinson, chief product officer at Past. “Sometimes, this is able to have been cost- and time-prohibitive for our launch timeline, so we have been joyful they provided options by using AI.”
As a dad or mum firm, Past homes Mattress Bathtub & Past, Child & Past, and Overstock. The up to date web site guarantees extra to return: manufacturers like Children & Past, School Residing, and Yard.com, in addition to Past Residence Loans to supply residence fairness traces of credit score.
Hinojosa says Lemonis was drawn to his studio’s fast-paced work with startups and described the chairman’s imaginative and prescient of the corporate as extra like a startup than a standard public firm. Lemonis says he was pleased with the outcomes of his design contest. He posted again on X Friday, providing $10,000 for a brand new Overstock brand design.
“Trendy communication by social media unlocks relationships that nobody may predict,” Lemonis stated in a press release to Quick Firm. “Our firm discovered gold within the mine with Sightbox, which has allowed us to speed up our technique at a tempo we couldn’t have achieved on our personal.”
Replace, February 23, 2024: This text has been up to date with details about Lemonis’s Overstock brand contest.
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