Despegar.com, the leading online travel company in Latin America based in Argentina, has launched a new brand identity commemorating its 20th anniversary. The rebranding was done in-house in collaboration with the brand consultancy Saffron (who also redesigned YouTube) and Brazilian agency REF+.
More than just a simple logo redesign, Despegar went through a complete rebranding process that seeks to improve the user experience across all touchpoints and build an emotional bond with users. This new experience includes a new brand strategy, new desktop and app platforms, a new campaign, and of course, a new visual identity.
“Trips are experiences that start long before the trip itself. From the moment oin which the idea, intention or desire appears, Despegar is next to the travelers to help them, assist them, give them options and promotions, and bring them the best possible proposal “
– Andres Patetta, Despegar CMO
The new strategy aims to evolve the brand from a transactional brand to an emotional brand that connects with the users on a more personal level. Despegar CMO, Andres Patetta, mentions that for 20 years they have focused on communicating how the site makes travel planning easier, but now that the market understands what the company offers and multiple competitors have arisen, the focus will be on showing how Despegar accompanies the users on their journey and helps them live unique experiences.
The new logo takes a very simplistic approach by getting rid of the icons and domain name the brand needed to use in its beginnings to position itself and to literally communicate its benefits —a website for booking flights and hotels. The new wordmark maintains the lowercase and serif typeface and joins the multiple brands that in recent years have chosen to use sans-serif geometric fonts to appear less corporate, more friendly and current. Nothing new.
The brand is also moving away from its navy blue and red to a bright purple. According to Despegar CMO, the color was chosen to generate a feeling of closeness and diversity; and it definitely does. Dark shades of blue are always associated with big corporate brands, so it makes sense for the brand to use brighter colors to change that perception.
This new color is part of a bigger color palette that allows the logo to be more flexible and change according to the needs of the brand. The idea of having a flexible identity is to make it feel customized to the clients, just like the product customized the trips according to the needs of the user.
The new symbol, a capital ‘D’ with overlayed purple shades —similar to MasterCard— has no published explanation yet. However, looking at the promo video, it seems that it comes from the overlay of 2 lines that represent the journey of travelers.
These lines are also present in videos, iconography, illustrations, and other design assets within the new app and website redesign. Which makes the identity stronger, and proves that the whole system was well-thought and designed around a concept that supports the brand strategy —accompany the clients throughout their trip.
Overall, this is a HUGE design project, from defining the new direction to the brand to incorporating the concept into the smallest icon design. I can’t imagine the meetings, conversations, and discussions the team had for months in order to achieve this.
It is true that the new logo is very simple and probably trendy, but that doesn’t mean it is bad. It addresses the main objective of the rebranding, which was making the brand younger and friendlier, but we’ll have to see if it is a long-term solution or just another trendy design that will need a change in a few years from now.
What I really like about this redesign is how they carried on the concept of the traveler’s journey across the design assets. The animation of the lines gives meaning to the new mark, which without it, the symbol would have been a meaningless pretty abstraction.
Probably the use of the ‘journey lines’ in the video and on the website could have been better, but their translation into icons is really well done. Overall, they did a great job keeping the design and concept consistent, which is something big companies tend to forget.
But well, at least that’s my F opinion.