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15/02/2017

Turned On

Established in 2011, Alcanzia is a residential and commercial electricity provider of energy in Spain and one of the fastest growing providers in the last five years as more private companies offer energy services after the market was freed from government control in 1997. Setting up for larger growth in the future, Alcanzia recently introduced a new identity designed by Alicante, Spain-based Small.

Beyond the underlying infrastructures, an electric utility helps us connect and interact with what matters most to us through a simple action: pressing a button or swiping a virtual switch. When you come across an element like this—so simple and commonplace that it can be found in every home and on all devices—you have a clear source of visual inspiration and the work simply flows.

A symbol was created that conveyed the brand’s message in a synthetic manner and with a proportionately large size compared to the logo. To maintain a connection with the previous identity, the blue colour range was kept and the typeface was updated to reinforce the message of approachability.

Small project page

New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Logo.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Wordmark grid.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
App icon. So meta.

The old logo — aside from the low resolution it was only available in — was remarkably bad, with a leaf trying to form an “A” and a wordmark more likely to give you nightmares than a clown in a closet. The new logo features a now ubiquitous digital switch that I find totally charming and very appropriate for a newly established energy company. I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen more logos using this kind of graphic device and I wonder if in 10 - 15 years it might become a cliché. In the meantime, major props to Alcanzia for using it first (if not first-first at least first I have seen). The wordmark valiantly tries to keep the “equity” of the old one and while it succeeds in making it a clear and cleaner update, it’s still a wonky structure to build upon… the “a”s look as if they are trying to keep the bottoms of their pants from getting wet in the rain. The missing tittle is needlessly missing and that poor “n” looks, well, poor. Nonetheless, its friendliness matches the icon fairly well.

New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Guidelines.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Stationery.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Business cards.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Livery.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Hard hats.

The applications are very standard, saved by the playfulness of the icon that works best when it’s more isolated as in the blue backgrounds of the business cards because in the stacked lock-up with the wordmark it feels way oversized. I love the hard hats but maybe for the wrong reason, the two dudes look like Playmobil figurines.

New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Icon set.

The icon set is unfortunately a big fail. The white dot for the switch is small when the icons are shown big and at their intended size it looks more like a dead pixel on a screen than something you would want to toggle. Even without the white dot, the icons are poorly executed.

New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Illustrations.
Promo video.
New Logo and Identity for Alcanzia by Small
Ad. The stencil font is one creative element too many.

The super friendly illustration approach for services and utilities might have already reached its limit and this, while nicely done and cute, feels somewhat gratuitous and maybe even out of place. With an energy company I want results and power, not after-school or Saturday morning entertainment. I do think the illustration style works well with the icon but even within the flat style, the people and things depicted, could be more grown up. Overall, though, it’s a playful update that hinges on the idea of bringing energy that powers our modern-day world.