Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/01/28/welsh_dragon_struck_by_rebranding/

Welsh dragon struck by rebranding madness

Strategy Boutique fleeces Taffs for 160k

By Lester Haines

Posted in Bootnotes, 28th January 2004 16:22 GMT

LogoWatch Anyone visiting Cardiff will note plenty of evidence of a vibrant Welsh economy. Blimey, they've even got Parisian-style pavement cafes serving double-decaf-latte-mocha-chocca at two quid a pop - a sure sign of fiscal buoyancy.

An even more certain indicator of affluence is to have enough cash in the bank to hand a London Strategy Boutique £160,000 for a corporate facelift.

That's exactly what the Welsh Development Agency did when they asked Glazer to have a shufti at their old dragon logo and come up with something which could replace all of the agency's disparate business support initiative logos.

A plausible enough plan, you might say. Indeed, were it not for the fact that after much ado Glazer came back with a virtually identical logo:

Before and after: that Welsh Development Agency logo in full

Far be it for

El Reg

to suggest that Glazer did not in fact spend thousands of hours brainstorming the brand frontage while waving laser pointers at flipcharts and shouting "synergy, yeah!" at inspirational vases stuffed with leeks, but there must be a suspicion that the WDA would have been better off giving the cleaner a tenner to redo the logo and spending the remaining £159,990 on something useful. Like a seminar entitled "160 grand for a change of font? You must be bloody joking!", for instance.

Still, we're sure they know what they're doing. Apparently, the consolidated logo plan will save around £700,000 a year, which is not to be sniffed at.

As for Glazer, it will doubtless continue to move forward in pushing back the envelope of the corporate paradigm. Sadly, its website does not contain a whalesong-driven expounding of the new WDA brand, although the guff accompanying the redesigned Mind logo has more than a hint of the aroma of joss-sticks about it.

We look forward to reading Glazer's breathless analysis of the sensational WDA facelift in due course. ®