CorpComms Magazine

High street bookseller Waterstone's has unveiled its new logo - a sans serif, lower case 'w' accompanied by the tagline 'feel every word'.

The new brand is currently being rolled out across 20 priority stores, including Birmingham New Street, Nottingham Lace Market and the retailer's flagship branch in London's Piccadilly, and is set to be fully installed by the autumn. 

The lower-case logo is designed to be flexible and easily tailored to different stores and literary genres, by varying colours and incorporating a variety of illustrations. We can only speculate as to whether the pictured x-ray version will be used to denote medical journals or hammer horror. 

Dominic Myers, managing director of Waterstone's, said: 'The Waterstone's brand occupies a special place on the high street. The new look and logo reflect what a great bookshop should be - alive, inspiring, and in tune with what readers are thinking.'

However, the rebranding has already received a mixed critical response, with some consumers fearing that what the brand gains in dynamism, it loses in the simple elegance of its predecessor. Others have pointed out the aesthetic similarities to the 'm' in the logo of the retailer's parent company, entertainment retail chain 'hmv'.

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