I noticed the other day that Waterstone’s (UK Bookshop chain) had rebranded from it’s old classical ‘W’ (on the left) to a very modern ‘W’ (on the right), in both a cool sans serif and as a version made up of other brightly coloured elements. It has a really nice surreal and dreamlike quality to it that hints at the world of excitement that books can give you.

They’ve also updated their tagline to “Feel every word” which I think works nicely for them. And they’ve changed the wordmark at the bottom of the identity to their web address, which whilst seeming a little 1990′s, does make sense for them as they try to push the online side of their business – especially when the only online bookseller people tend to think about is Amazon this at least helps to push them closer to the front of people’s minds.

All-in-all, it’s a nice update to the brand, and whilst I was very fond of the old one, I can certainly see the business reasoning for needing to update and refresh to help appeal to both a younger audience and to compete against other forms of entertainment. It makes them appear a far more exciting place to enter rather than the previous identity which gave the impressions of a very formal book shop / library. Now they’ve just got to work on the interiors…

More info can be found over at Creative Review.

// Images: both Waterstone’s logos knicked / borrowed from Waterstone’s themselves.