ST Dupont jumps on Branding Change Bandwagon with Bland Serif Logo

The ceaseless march towards dull conformity amongst luxury brands continues, with ST Dupont's quietly introduced new logo.  

We have lost track of the amounts of brands that followed Hedi Slimane's Dior, then Saint Laurent Paris, rebranding.  Yet the amusing thing that these lemmings rushing towards the cliff edge fail to understand is that it's not a smart move.  Homogeneity is precisely what consumers are attempting to move away from by purchasing luxury goods.  By adopting a stale Serif look because SLP"s stock went up just makes your brand look boring.

While the Arnault family's entire progeny seem to think it's a great idea, as demonstrated by them removing every ounce of originality in everything they touch.  Other companies realise their error and revert.  For example, we wrote of Burberry and Saint Laurent Paris returning to the classic logo.  Albeit in the most confused way possible. (Burberry article here, and SLP article here)

So it comes then to ST Dupont.  Who scrapped the elegant calligraphy of a logo that can be found on lighters for over 100 years, and opted for the standard Serif mundanity.  In fact, we dislike this even more, as it has an annoying ST orphaned to the left of a large bold "Dupont".  It makes the logo look more like it's a collectible for the Dupont chemical company than a lighter from the storied smokers brand.  

Sadly this new logo has already made its way onto lighters and products in their catalogue.  So it's a good chance it will be around for a while.  Until they realise their error and go back to the only one that worked.  If it aint broke, don't fix it.  A saying "Dupont" might need to reconsider.