DBA ‘out of sink’ with business?

The Design Business Association’s new identity, created by Coley Porter Bell, has received a mixed reaction from DBA members since its launch last week.

Marsteller Giant managing director Mark Rollinson says it “looks professional and will do a very good job for the organisation”, while Frazer Designers marketing manager Tanvir Mufti also favours the new logo, describing it as “quite refreshing and forward thinking”.

“As an expression of what the DBA’s role is, the ripples metaphor works quite well. Spelling out the name is also an improvement and will hopefully lead everyone to call it by its full name,” adds Rollinson.

But Peter Matthews, managing director of Nucleus Design, says that it “uses the wrong visual language. It’s sometimes unfair to criticise marques like this out of their natural context, but I’m not sure this is communicating the right message.

“It is very FMCG and its meaning appears to be contrived and prone to misinterpretation. It could easily be seen as design trapped in a vortex and out of ‘sink’ [because it looks like a drain] with business.”

Andy Davey, principal of TKO, is not overly impressed either. “Typographically it’s a bit of a non-entity,” he says. Davey adds: “It could have been a bit more inspiring, but maybe it was not supposed to be.”

Fitch associate director Sean O’Mara agrees that including the full name is a “good idea”, but is “not 100 per cent” behind the logo. “It should be simple and sweet ,but it’s a bit confused and in a state of flux. It’s not a catalyst for business.”