Jaguar's rebrand did not sit well with internal staff – report
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Reports suggest Jaguar’s own design team was blindsided by the company’s redesign, and claims the process left them on the outside.
Jaguar's bold rebrand late last year spurred significant consternation from automotive media and the public alike, but it's now been revealed that the manufacturer's overhaul also blindsided internal staff.
According to an Autocar India report, Jaguar's designers penned a letter to the brand's chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, expressing disappointment with the decision to outsource the rebrand.
The letter was reportedly signed by 25-30 members of Jaguar's in-house design team, who complained about the way the external consultancy firm, Accenture Interactive, went about the overhaul.
MORE: Opinion — the Jaguar rebrand deserves praise, not scorn
Many of the complaints were levelled at the new Jaguar logo, with Jaguar's design team criticising the "playful" looks that don't speak to the Concept 00's bold physical presence. Likewise, it was noted that the logo shared similarities with other brands, when instead the campaign's own material referred to the brand being a "copy of nothing".
According to Autocar India, which published excerpts of the letter, the internal team felt there was no collaboration with existing design staff and their views were overlooked: "We truly believe in an open and collaborative approach between all creative parties. Influencing and being influenced by each other. An essential environment to create one unique identity, which transcends holistically."
The external consultancy tasked with the project to reimagine Jaguar for the future is named Accenture Interactive, which bought out the preexisting Jaguar creative agency that worked on previous projects, Spark44.
MORE: Jaguar reveals radical new electric car after controversial rebrand
Jaguar management's decision to entrust the rebrand to an external agency, rather than internal stakeholders, appears to be the primary concern of the letter.
"As a team, we worked collaboratively across our design disciplines for the holistic purpose and modern luxury narrative needed for the project. Everything was designed authentically with meaning and soul with a distinct purpose…", the letter reads.
Although the brand's redesign drew widespread criticism, it did get people talking about the Jaguar once again.
At the time of the rebrand, Google search reported a 500 per cent increase in online queries for "Jaguar". Likewise, page views surrounding the rebrand story on Drive eclipsed all previous Jaguar content pertaining to the brand's petrol models ending production.
A Drive survey asking readers for their opinion on the rebrand received upwards of 1200 responses in 24 hours, with 89 per cent of respondents saying the new look was "terrible".
The post Jaguar’s rebrand did not sit well with internal staff – report appeared first on Drive.
