Blackwater Rebrands as what?!
Apparently Blackwater Worldwide has decided to rebrand itself. And the name they have decided to go with is…
Xe
(pronounced “Z”).
Apparently this rebranding effort was purposed to remove Blackwater from the controversy surrounding its time and actions in Iraq.
I find this interesting from a design standpoint. Oddly, for all this talk about rebranding, only the name change is mentioned. What does this new name mean? How does it reflect “Blackwater’s” shift from operations to training and logistics? All of the reports I could find on the net focused on 1) the new name and 2) the fact that the new name was an attempt to distance the company from controversy. Oddly, most of them used the phrase “rebrand” but none of them really said anything about the brand — instead focusing on Blackwater’s sketchy past.
Hopefully the company that worked on the rebranding for Blackwater did a little more work than throwing darts at a board of names…because that’s what it seems like at the moment. I have yet to see a new look (their website is PAINFUL, btw), a new logo (which I’m sure exists…right?), or anything even remotely conceptual to the new name.
I think such a rebranding project would be incredibly interesting. How do you go about rebranding a company like Blackwater? How do you present the work they do on a global scale?
Has anyone heard any more about this?
Bonus: Check out the major brand disconnect between the Blackwater USA site (hello 1995 internet site) and Greystone Ltd. (Blackwater’s international division).
