My Analysis Of The New Mailchimp Rebrand

Every few weeks I publish my own analysis on what’s happening in the world of illustration, design, and creativity.

From exhibitions which I’ve been lucky enough to attend, illustration news, to what’s going on in the design world, I share my thoughts on these subjects to keep you in the loop.

Today’s post is all about the world of re-branding, and the latest company to do a major re-brand is Mailchimp.

Formed in 2001 with over 800 employees, and a software that I use personally (and a lot of others use), I’m going to share what I think about this latest rebrand.

A major job that must of taken considerable resource, time and energy, I reveal if it’s successful or not, so let’s get into it!

My Initial Take On The New Mailchimp Rebrand

Mailchimp have taken a lot of steps to get here.

The classic monkey wink has always been at the heart of their brand, and as you can see from Ben Chestnut’s recent Tweet (Mailchimp’s CEO), he reveals their first ever logo, which shows you how far they have come – it’s quite a difference to today’s brand.

(And if you look at Ben’s reply to his Tweet, his initially idea was to make it / or not make it look like Firefox – classic).

You can say it’s quite the success story!

With the help of Mailchimp’s internal design team, Collins Creative Agency and R/GA based in New York, Mailchimp reveal a new logo, brand identity, and illustrations.

The new re-brand is certainly different to anything that I’ve seen recently (in terms of company re-brands). Some people say it looks weird, some say it’s offers a playful nature, whilst others like me think this has been done to differentiate between them and the competition.

Or to help them grow and communicate a multi-product organisation, as they aren’t just an email marketing company anymore.

Most other brands you see today all look quite similar; they’re clean, crisp, and modern, and they say the same things and communicate the same way too.

Even though the new Mailchimp rebrand is all of these things, it’s different.

It certainly is weird, wacky and playful – which is where I believe they have triumphed.

It was a shock to the system when I logged into my Mailchimp account (the day of their rebrand), to see a different brand before my eyes, but after my initial surprise I was very intrigued.

I wanted to discover more, and even though I’ve know what their business is about, it was like a fresh pair of eyes on a company.

The Use Of Illustration Within The Rebrand

One thing that certainly helps communicate a fresh appeal are the illustrations they use.

Personal, simple, yet effective, these illustrations really bring out the new branding, using abstract and often random picture subjects, which again, is the message they want to communicate – we are different, we are unique, we have our own voice.

It’s certainly better than the usual icon and stock imagery you see.

Which shows you the power of illustration!

They have stepped away from their quirky and sometimes casual tone of voice, which they used for quite a few years.

It’s almost they are going back to basics and stripping away the brand to reveal a fresh new approach.

They have managed to capture what this ‘new look’ Mailchimp rebrand is about, whilst being able to achieve what some others cannot – being different from the rest. If you manage to stick your neck out with something completely different, people are either going to love it, or hate it, and I must say, I’m a fan!

What Are Your Thoughts?

I’ll love to hear what you think about this new rebrand, and if you personally think it’s successful or not – as you might think completely disagree to me!

Do pop me a comment below to share what your thoughts are, would be great to converse about this new Mailchimp rebrand!

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