Once again the logo beast has reared its (somewhat) ugly head! a while ago I commented on how bad the new AT&T logo was and asked, “Why would a company with a strong logo design that has been around for ages change it to something visually uncomfortable and simply bad?” Okay, maybe I shouldn’t say “bad” but certainly not as strong, solid or even as well thought out as it was. I’m just floored by a lot of companies like AT&T who give the go-ahead on these redesigns instead of spending the money on something that would actually propel the company further.

My problematic logo of the day is the new Pepsi logo. WOW? What? I haven’t quite read into the reasoning or the meaning of the new logo, but I have heard that the strange shape is supposed to resemble a “smile”. Bottom line is this: once again a big corporation has joined the craptastic depths of businesses who pay top dollar for mediocre (at best) work. Take a look below.

Allow me to say right off the bat, the Mountain Dew design is lame. I understand that a lot of tech geeks use Mt. Dew as fuel but that doesn’t mean that you need to change the font to a techy designed font or bow to that demographic of your market. I think they would even say it looks like ass.
Was there a point here? It doesn’t seem so to me. I guess they thought that since the Pepsi logo was gonna be redesigned, they might as well do the rest too… Well, bad idea guys. Looks terrible.

Now, On to Pepsi. The first thing that I noticed when looking at the new Pepsi bottle logos was that the “smile” is different sizes on all labels! This makes no sense to me. I tried to make a little sense of it by saying that the size of the white smile dictates the amount of calories or its “health benefits” but that didn’t work either! Notice that the diet Pepsi logo has the smallest “smile”. The regular Pepsi logo has a bigger smile and the Pepsi Zero logo design has the “smile” the largest of the three. It just doesn’t seem like these were well thought out and explored; two things that should seriously have been done considering the amount of money connected with the product. Regardless of whether or not there is a “method to the madness”, without an explanation it’s still poor design.

I don’t mind the font so much, in fact there are some postings on Brand New that point out it looks like the old old diet Pepsi logo. I do however dislike it’s placement and size. Personally I think it would have looked better horizontally under the “smile” logo. That way its still balanced and just plain looks better. Along with the placement, the sub text (0 cal carb sugar) doesn’t always appear centered under the logo and in the case of the regular Pepsi the empty space under the logo is really bothersome. With so few elements “white space” cannot be an excuse. The layout is just plain lazy.

One of the last things I will mention has nothing to do with the logo, but the shape of the bottle. I know I’m not the first to notice it but it does look quite phallic to me. I think that Pepsi needs to stop wasting time and money on logo recreations and bottle shaping and pay more attention to their marketing and advertising. Oh, wait… but logo creation and bottle design go hand-in-hand with marketing and advertising! Oh well, looks like another wasted marketing budget!

Overall I’d say that the New Pepsi Logo missed the mark. Not exactly by miles but certainly by a far stretch. I just don’t understand why some companies feel that they need a new or modern logo. In the case of AT&T and Pepsi its just a few really bad decisions and bad tweaks on an already strong logo design. I’m sure it won’t impact their bottom line at all but honestly, how much do you really need to push into advertising and marketing for Pepsi?

Would you like a drink with that? Coke or Pepsi?

Its been eight long years since the boys said wassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay true to what really matters.

I was reminded on Friday of how flimsy computer data really is and how much a potent online backup system is really needed. I came into the office like any other day when I noticed a very frustrated and upset co-worker stressing over her laptop. She began to explain how she was using it fine last night after a supposed “windows update” took place. She told me about the update, how she closed the lid and went to bed like she normally does. This morning, however, she was confused that her laptop no longer loaded anything, not even the OS. There was a recovery program that popped up, but still had no luck in the actual recovery of her system. She was incredibly upset. All of her photos, her personal works and website content, a lot of email and music was all gone… lost forever. She tried to see if taking it to a specialist would work, but a $100 to just do a diagnostic, she passed and started to think about how to rebuild her lost data.

As a person who is constantly on his computer and has a TON of information, jobs, photos, music, projects, websites etc., on his system, it seemed like a drastic wake-up call to get on the ball and start backing up my system on a regular basis. I began a while ago with basic back up on an external hard drive. I picked up a Western Digital 500 gig for pretty cheap. I think you can get them now for about $100 or so. The great thing I love about my external is that its a simple plug-n-play and typically all I have to do is plug it in and start moving files. The problem however is that I have to lug the thing around if I want to consistently and effectively back up my computer. With this in mind, and another little nudge from my girlfriend to back up the computer, I decided to look into a product I have been hearing about on Sirius satellite radio.

Carbonite is an online backup system that offers unlimited backup storage for a low price of about $50 per year. So far, Carbonite has backed up over 3 billion files and more importantly, restored over 200 million files that would have been lost forever. Carbonite automatically and securely backs up the irreplaceable contents of their computers for only $49.95 per year ($89.95 for 2 years) – no matter how much stuff they need to backup. Restoring lost files takes just a few clicks. Carbonite offers a risk-free trial so users can see how simple it is to securely back up their photos, emails, music, financial records and other important documents. More than 60% of people who download the free trial end up subscribing to Carbonite and I can understand why!

Very shortly after filling out my information and downloading the Carbonite client to my PC, I noticed it working in the background without any pop-ups or delays from the system itself. The program told me that the initial backup of files could take up to a few days depending on how large your hard drive is. So the bigger your HD, the longer it will take initially for Carbonite to set itself up. After the initial backup Carbonite’s automatic back ups take only minutes to achieve. You will know the back up is complete when the Carbonite lock turns green in your dock. You’ll also notice that your desktop files and internal files will now have a small circle next to them. An orange/yellow circle means that that file is scheduled to be backed up, while the green circle means that your files has been successfully backed up in Carbonite’s system.

Carbonite runs continuously in the background while you work on your computer so the need to plug and unplug external devices is now eliminated! Lug around those external hard drives and CDs no more! Have you ever deleted a file by mistake? I have, like a billion times! Okay maybe not a billion, but do it once and it sure feels like it! Carbonite’s system is so easy to use that you can simply download that file back from Carbonite’s Online back up without hesitation. Since you’re always updating and backing up files while you work, it’s almost like having a carbon copy of your computer somewhere else to access whenever you need it.

For the $49.95 a year its a deal that no one should pass up. Consider the loss of your computer alone… anywhere from $500 to $5000! Now imagine the big project for work, all those baby pictures you haven’t printed out yet, your tax and business papers! Priceless materials that you cannot afford to lose. Don’t become one of the 43% of computer users who lose their irreplaceable files! Why Risk It? Protect your files with Carbonite Online Backup. Easy set-up, automatic backup, simple restore. Start your free trial!