BIC
BIC, a family-owned company founded in 1944 by Marcel Bich with his partner, Édouard Buffard, is a maker of writing instruments parts. Marcel Bich adapted and improved the ballpoint invented by the Hungarian László Biró, in December 1950, and launched his own ballpoint pen in France under the BIC brand, a shortened and more memorable version of his own name. The quality and affordable price of the BIC ballpoint pen meant it was quickly adopted by an increasing number of consumers.
What we did
This is a tough one as I really love BIC pens and they would be my preference over any expensive fountain pen, says Darren Scott, Truth’s Creative Director. They are an icon of design, and of popular culture as much as any disposable consumer product could ever be. This is why even though BIC’s brand mark frustrates the designer in me, I actually love its historical charm and endearing familiarity. That said, the imperfect typography and illustrative ‘BIC Boy’ character are not really designed to suit the modern marketplace. The BIC Boy as designed by Raymond Savignac was described on the corporation's website as "a schoolboy, with a head in the shape of a ball, holding a pen behind his back." The ball has been a notable feature in BIC's ballpoint pens since 1960. This is a key part of what makes BIC what it is, so we wanted to keep it somewhere. We consigned the boy to history and used the ball as the tittle on the i. The typography is also a curious mix of a sans-serif B and lowercase i, combined with a slab-serif C. We opted for a cleaner, more modern all sans-serif look. The crudely drawn geometric rhomboid holding device which was added in 1961 has also been refreshed and redrawn.
Part of me would be perfectly happy if the BIC logo never changes, it’s kind of a Coca-Cola mark in a way. But I had to scratch the itch that has always been bothering me as I scribbled and chewed away with my comforting blue BIC. I am not saying I have improved it, certainly not in 60 minutes anyway, but I think it is one way to move it forward. I know the BIC lovers everywhere will frown upon any change, and I get it, because I love BIC too.
60min Makeovers is an internal Truth project where we take a popular brand and refresh it in under an hour. It is just for fun and is undertaken with no insight or knowledge of the brand's future strategy. It is purely cosmetic and for our own pleasure.