Thursday, November 15, 2012

Best logo ever, roadside convenience subdivision

I give you: QuikStop.™®©

Not to be confused with Quick Stop, Quickie Stop, Quikee Stop, Stop Quick, Quick Mart, Quikmart and all the other homespun spawn.

This nationwide chain has to compete with the big boys, 7-11™® and am pm®™, which have reached Pavlovian marketing status.

Their logos do not have to be beautiful — and they are not. Really. They just have to be: The mere sight of them, glowing in the urban night, triggers desire for the taquitos and cola slushes and Funyuns™®© and lottery tickets not far away, so thorough is their market saturation.

QuikStop competes by not competing. We may not get much of the market share, is what the logo tells me, but we're dignified about it.

The logo is smart. QuikStop thinks its customers are smart. With a few quick gestural shapes within a soft diamond, the logo creates the U.S. map out of negative space. It asks shoppers to recognize the map, even in its barest form. And it softens up the negotiation with shoppers by using slightly off colors, not the garish collection of its giant competitors. Many of the stores I've seen set the logo in a black background, which makes it almost upscale.

The type — eh, it's unprepossessing, soft, not meant to clash with the mark. Come and shop here, if you want, it says. We're all over the place, but we won't hassle you. We may even provide soft lighting.

My kind of convenience store.

Not that I've gone to one. I just appreciate looking at the sign on the rare occasion I drive past one.

Anyway, it beats what the chain used to have for a logo:


Clip art meets press-down type. Is it a convenience store or a lube and oil shop? Dry cleaner?

QuikStop rescued itself.


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