by Andrew Bogucki, Principal, Creative Director CoreBrand

Retail monolith Wal-Mart has taken the plunge and changed its identity. While I’m specifically referring to the logo and the design elements that support it, it seems to be an indicator of an identity shift in the more universal sense.

While highly profitable, perceptions of the world’s richest company have suffered from decades of aggressive business practices and dubious employment policies as well as a decidedly un-cool, low-end image. Can design help?

The obvious competitor in the mega-retail space is Target, who has always understood the value of good design in all aspects of the brand experience, and who’s favorability scores overtook Wal-Mart’s last year in CoreBrand’s Brand Power Analysis. Perhaps Wal-Mart is trying to get design to work a little harder for them as well.

Obviously, it takes a number of changes to shift the perception of an organization. Wal-Mart is stocking and promoting many new “green” products, and turning to lifestyle- oriented messaging in its slick new commercials. On the logo front, it’s using some tried-and-true design treatments to signal change. The bold, all-caps, industrial strength typography has been replaced with a lighter, friendlier, upper-and-lower case treatment. The deep, monopolistic blue has been traded for brighter, less ominous cyan. The military-style star has turned into a bright yellow spark. The hyphenated name has been collapsed to one word.

Is it about a new customer base? Maybe. To help purge some brand baggage? Perhaps. Will it cost millions, even over a billion, just in signage alone? Definitely. Will it make them cool? We’ll just have to wait and see.