A Tale of Lost Brothers: Smart Axiata (Cambodia) and Smart Communications (Philippines)
Rocky emailed me last week and said that they're re-launching GameOPS. He showed me the new layout and new logos and they look awesome. I got too excited and did some detective jobs for them right away not knowing that this site won't launch until July 1st. Oh well...
Speaking of logos, PLDT and Smart Communications recently changed their logos. They were ugly. Very ugly. Smart's color scheme looked like it's a subsidiary of Family Mart.
The biggest problem the logos have are the wordmarks. PLDT passes unnoticed since there isn't much to screw up but they still managed to mangle that "T". Smart, however, is a train wreck. Every character in that name makes me want to crash my hard drive on purpose so I don't have to look at it anymore. The "a" alone is the stuff of nightmares — whoever did that has clearly never paid attention to how letters are constructed. To their credit, the "t" here matches the "T" in PLDT but, unfortunately, they both suck. Overall, this feels like it's trying too hard and more important, the Smart brand now feels awfully corporate and has lost the consumer brand vibe the previous one had.
(Source)
Rebranded logo of Smart is meh. Shape ng Vicks, design ng Google Drive, font ng Family Mart, color scheme ng Ariel. Not feeling it. #ANewDay— Jian Genovana (@jiangenovana) June 13, 2016
Smart's new logo moodboard, probably. pic.twitter.com/nT8Rh2Du50— Vincent Kristan (@VinQuilop) June 13, 2016
Freelance service website freelancer.com even launched a contest to re-design the new logos.
The Family Mart and Vicks logos are nothing on what I've discovered. There's this telco in Cambodia called Smart Axiata or Smart which offers 4G LTE services and has almost exactly the same logo font type and color scheme as Smart Communications' website and logos.
Here are the websites of Smart Communications (Philippines) and Smart Axiata (Cambodia):
In conclusion, it's alright to have comparisons in logos. I understand that. What I don't understand is how a logo worth millions has the same font type, and same color scheme with a company with the same name and same products and services?
As a company, how would you feel after paying millions, just to find out that your logo... for lack of a better word, looks like a rip-off?
Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence? You decide.
About Smart Axiata
Smart is the first and only mobile operator in Cambodia to provide true 4G services throughout all 25 provinces in the country, covering more than 98% of the population. In 2015, Smart was awarded the Asia Pacific Emerging Market Telecom Service Provider of the Year 2015 by Frost & Sullivan.About Smart Communications
Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PLDT and is the Philippines’ leading wireless services provider with 68.9 million cellular and broadband subscribers as of end 2015
Smart has built a reputation for innovation, having introduced world-first wireless offerings such as Smart Money, Smart Load, Smart Padala, and the Netphone. Smart offers 3G, HSPA+, and LTE services, while its Smart Satellite service provides communications to the global maritime industry.
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