Repositioning a long-standing brand in the market
Well established publishers worldwide and in the New Zealand marketplace, David Bateman Ltd, took on the challenge of repositioning themselves from a family business by changing their name to Bateman Books.
There had been some hesitation from long-term managers around dropping the founder’s name from the business. When a business has been so synonymous with the name and the person, this is understandable, both for sentimental reasons and the long-standing reputation.
The publishing business has seen great changes over the last decade with technology advancing at a fast rate, more and more authors self-publishing, and the invention of hand-held e-book readers.
Embracing these changes as a publishing company takes courage and vision. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, says: “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
About the client
David Bateman Ltd has been an independent New Zealand-owned company for over thirty years, providing publishing, sales, promotion and distribution services to the New Zealand market. They have been committed to ensuring both local and international book publishers reach their full potential in New Zealand.
Sublime’s approach to the logo
The existing logo had remained largely unchanged. It was safe, dependable, ultra conservative and very dated. Keeping in mind the conservative nature of the client was important, though the new logo needed to be contemporary, solid, and have global appeal.
The solution is smart, elegant and visually clever, still solid and dependable yet no longer ultra conservative. The brand inspires confidence and reliability.
How did Sublime do this?
Colour
The combination of the burgundy and grey of the existing logo is very 1980s. Moving away from that, the challenge was to use a palette appealing to both genders, that felt both grounded and modern. The result was a deep teal blue paired with dark grey.
Typeface
The existing typeface was a classic bold serif in sentence case. Now we have the opposite; a simple, angular sans serif font utilising two different weights of the font, giving each clarity, and aiding readability.
The use of capital letters gives the wording a solid feel stacked on top of each other, ranged right of the symbol, visually creating the bookend of the first ‘B’.
Shape
An open book turned sideways creates two ‘Bs’ which make up the icon of the logo.
The first ‘B’ is the ‘book’ and the negative space between the lettering and the ‘book’ form the shape of the second ‘B’. For Bateman Books.
Usage
The brand is to be used primarily on book covers and needed to be adaptable across all media: emails, signage and stationery.
Developing and implementing the new brand was a super smooth transition and has been well received in the industry.
