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New Belk logo

StevenRocks

By StevenRocks
in Charlotte Coffee House

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StevenRocks City

StevenRocks

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How much of a change from their present logo do you think?

From what i hear, quite a bit. The new logo is supposed to reference one of the previous 1960s logos, and the signature Belk blue-green will be history as well. I can't find any information online about what the new logo will look like.
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101_ce Hamlet

101_ce

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From what i hear, quite a bit. The new logo is supposed to reference one of the previous 1960s logos, and the signature Belk blue-green will be history as well. I can't find any information online about what the new logo will look like.

I really like their current logo! Hope it's not bad! When they replace it, a Charlottean needs to take a picture! :)

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nonillogical Burg

nonillogical

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I'll offer my over-analytical two cents as this is what I do for a living...I think the typography looks clean and contemporary, but the abstract blue mark is a little overly trendy right now, and will look dated itself in 5 years. The plus is that its fairly extend-able as a graphic element to other pieces, as seen in the shopping bag. It's always a plus to be able to use the logo as more than a logo on a field of white. Overall a nice-looking but sort of cliche effort.

There's always an uproar when a logo gets refreshed. Even though everyone was used to the old Belk logo, it was AWFUL. It had some of the worst typography I've ever seen by a major chain, not to mention in an insanely dated color.

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Kenneth Disraili-Jean Hamlet

Kenneth Disraili-Jean

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Hmmm.....I think I really like it. Just maybe this will be sufficent enough to encourage the well healed snooty shoppers at Phipps Plaza to actually shop in the Atanta Flagship department store, rather than Saks or Nordstorm.

From what I see, this was a terrific move, and none of Atlanta's suburban Belk stores seem to be having problems. It's just the snooty, beotchy shoppers (not all) at Phipps that think Simon should have replaced the former Parisian with Bergdorf Goodman, of course owned by Neiman Marcus.

Thumbs up for Belk!!!!!:thumbsup:

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StevenRocks City

StevenRocks

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post-1659-047776600 1286159752_thumb.jpgpost-1659-001848200 1286159835_thumb.jpgpost-1659-069889800 1286160217_thumb.jpg

The original 1968 Lippincott & Margulies-designed Belk & Leggett logos were an exceptional effort. They were distinctive, elegant, and went totally against the typical corporate logo trends of the times. The Belk font was custom designed and was rendered beautifully across multiple media. It signaled a revolution in the way Belk thought about its stores and image and served the company very well.

It's easy to find the faults in a 42 year old logo, but at least consider the significance of what's being criticized.

With that said, I like this new design, but to me it doesn't say "Belk." The logo feels kind of '70s. The flower is interesting, and the tagline is decent, but the logotype is a ripoff of Bloomingdale's with a side of Macy's with the flower positioning. It's too "me too." One of the posters to my Facebook page likened the flower to a logo on a feminine hygiene product.

The Belk cartouche was theirs! They owned it, and there was nothing else like it. It was especially handsome back in the Seventies when they still filled in the parts with various colors and had the bags with the overprint in all the shades. Even the "All For You" period wasn't especially bad design-wise.

I should have known the end was coming when they cheapened the logo around the time of the Parisian takeover. That simplification ruined what was arguably their best visual identifier.

The worst part, I think, is that this is the end of Hudson Belk and Matthews Belk, the last two links to the old partner names. That's the part that irks me the most, because their interpretations of the Belk logo were especially beautiful.

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101_ce Hamlet

101_ce

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It will be wierd to see the Triangle Belk stores without the Hudson in front of it....always made the stores feel special compared to the other Belk stores (which is nonsense I know as the only difference was in the name), although I'm sure everyone will adjust.

It will be weird to see this logo on the older stores. I can't really picture it well on older stores like Crabtree, Haywood, and others.

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NCMike1981 Burg

NCMike1981

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I was driving by Crabtree on my way home from work and noticed that it looked like they've already taken down the "Hudson Belk" signs and replaced them with a banner that says simply "Belk" in the old script. It reminds me of when Hechts switched over to Macys. In a way it's kind of wierd to think that for a week or two the Triangle stores will technically have the old logo in non hyphenated form for the first time ever before switching to the new logo.

Also I noticed in the article that in NC it mentions Charlotte and Raleigh switching over to the new logo first. So does that mean that other NC stores (Triad, Wilmington, Fayetteville etc) will retain the old logo for a period of time?

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101_ce Hamlet

101_ce

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I was driving by Crabtree on my way home from work and noticed that it looked like they've already taken down the "Hudson Belk" signs and replaced them with a banner that says simply "Belk" in the old script. It reminds me of when Hechts switched over to Macys. In a way it's kind of wierd to think that for a week or two the Triangle stores will technically have the old logo in non hyphenated form for the first time ever before switching to the new logo.

Also I noticed in the article that in NC it mentions Charlotte and Raleigh switching over to the new logo first. So does that mean that other NC stores (Triad, Wilmington, Fayetteville etc) will retain the old logo for a period of time?

As you mentioned, the 4 flagship stores will be getting them first. Then it said 60 by November. They will probably be like Haywood, Riverchase Galleria, Mall of Georgia, Northlake, Columbiana, South Point, etc. But I'm guessing that all stores should have the new logo by sometime next year.

Edit:

Just reading the comments on the article and It's kind of annoying how they act like Belk is the same as JCPenney/ most Macy's

Here is a quote:

"Belk is dead and doesn't know it. Independent retailers that target the mid-market (like Belk) will eventually either get bought out by a larger chain or go away. Sorry but that is the way the market works. At the mid-market level you have Dillards, Macys, etc which have much more pricing and marketing power than Belk (plus greater name recognition) and they aren't about to compete with Nordstroms, Lord and Taylor, etc on the high end."

How are they "aren't about to compete with Nordstrom"? They sell some of the same brands. You can enter the store on level three from Fairview and be hit with a bunch of big name designers such as St. John, Theory, etc. L&T isn't different from Macy's anymore.

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StevenRocks City

StevenRocks

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Reading the comments on the Observer story made my blood boil. I mean, have half of these people even been to Belk in the last five years? They're not Kohl's, or Neiman Marcus, and the wages and Chinese made goods are pretty darn similar to everybody else out there. Maybe this new logo introduction will be a chance for them to clarify their market position, because there is a baffling amount of misinformation out there.

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Here are the last three Belk logos side by side. When I placed the logos side by side, the 2010 logo makes a little more sense. The wordmark is derivative, as is the flower, but it's an evolution in style and image for a company that is willing to dump its stodgy image and again compete with the best in retail. I can even see a little of the old 1967 logo here and there on the new one.

post-1659-073901900 1286505187_thumb.jpg

I also decided to play with Photoshop and bring back the classic Belk logo treatment from the 1970s. I know the colors are off, but it's pretty close.

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HopHead City

HopHead

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I learned a long time ago to take what a majority of the bafoons on the Observer web site say with a grain a salt. They hardly ever leave their mom's basement and gone out to explore most everything they something negative about. I'm not much of a marketing/shopping kind of person, but I really like what Belk did with their new logo. It went from looking like something you'd see in your grandmom's house to modern and cool looking.

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mallguy Town

mallguy

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I don't see the point in Belk adopting a new logo and spending $70MM for it. The old one was distinctive, and the chain is performing fine--much better than Dillard's.

Edited: Lord & Taylor has had that same illegible script logo for decades; Macy's and Bloomingdale's, I think, have had theirs for years, and so has JCPenney- what is Belk gaining that the other chains are not?

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nonillogical Burg

nonillogical

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Sorry, but feelings about the new logo aside, I still can't believe that people are defending the old logo. It must just be a serious case of nostalgia. As someone who designs logos and such for a living, let me tell you that one failed on every typographic principle and if you didn't know that Belk was a large company, you'd think somebody's 14 year old nephew had designed it in MS Word.

I know people think these kinds of things only get noticed by other designers and we're just being elitist jerks, but subconsciously you do know whats professionally done and what's not. Pretend you've never heard of Belk in your life. Now look at the 2 logos side-by-side. Which one is a large company, and which one is a fledgling startup?

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