Life is surely thrilling at the Mirror when there’s no dead peoples phone to hack
Can’t believe smiths is still going. It’s only the post offices in them that are keeping them open.
No one has been impressed by anything at WH Smith for decades.
Can’t even see the logo if you wanted to. The god awful website doesn’t show anything but adverts.
To save people the effort: the ‘new’ logo is just the letters “WHS”, plain white font, same blue background, just with an S instead of Smith. At a glance it looks like the NHS logo
Does look very cheap tbf and hardly an improvement
I had no idea until I just looked at them on Wikipedia, that they invented the ISBN book numbering system.
Utter shite. They’d have made people happy if they’d went back to the old cube logo for the high street.
How does this shop even stay afloat selling this shit you can buy in B&M, never mind a full rebrand?
So now it is just
##WHS
In white writing with a blue background, looks awfully familiar to the NHS logo.
I have two points to make
1. The new logo sucks
2. That is one of the most fucking annoying websites I’ve ever used
People call it Smiths not WHS, it’s not like if marks and spencer change to M&S or Marks which people call do use. It feels like an odd choice
I had to google it separately, the link is riddled with adverts/pop ups.
Its awful and cheap.
The talentless bizarre decision making for everything in the UK is almost impressive.
I’m certain WHSmith is a front for money laundering. There’s no way they’re making money and still on the high street
Very NHS – but also makes you think BHS since it’s a shop!
What is it with people getting disproportionately angry over corporate logos being altered slightly?
Interesting that there’s nothing anywhere suggesting they’ve actually had a rebrand. Can’t find any press releases, all their visual identity guidelines still reference the familiar logo and colour.
Unclear when this is from but some design agency coming up with a style guide:
I wonder if this is a former Smith’s shop which has been taken over as a going concern in the lead up to Christmas that’s just slapped a new sign up?
Given the similarity with the NHS logo and the difference to the actual Smith’s logo, as well as how bad and amateur it looks, I’m struggling to believe this is an actual rebrand.
Admittedly whoever signed off the new design must be tripping.
looks *awful* holyshit
plus it’s gonna be hard to not call it WHSmith
Can’t believe anyone still goes to WHSmith. Dirty old men and women really keeping it afloat?
I can’t believe they rejected my comic sans version for this shit.
That’s really poor timing to modernise a logo, considering brands like Burberry and Pepsi are all going “retro” now. Probably been talking about it for years but took so long that they missed the trend
WHSmith is one of thee most useless shops in the UK .
I mean the prices are ridiculous and stationary and books are cheaper elsewhere .
The Wational Health Service?
What twonk thought that was a good idea. Thats the worst logo since BT went to a black and white BT in a circle.
Because it’s an awful logo.
Looks like a Chinese NHS. Wational Health Service.
Wasn’t anything wrong with their old one either. Whilst not particularly iconic, it was recognisable. This just just bland and forgettable.
Most people call the store Smiths or Smithies anyway
Would love to see the options they discarded to have that be the best of the bunch.
I’m not against WHSmith doing a rebrand, but this is just a bad one.
In other news WHSmiths bends knee to Premier, opens door for their full take over with bargain basement logo no one asked for.
Not that important in the grand scheme of things I know, but it does look generic as hell. People have always called it Smiths and probably always will; you never hear anyone say “I’m popping into WHS for a magazine”. Why not capitalise on the part of the name that has already lodged itself firmly into people’s minds?
I’ve always thought the same about Marks & Spencer becoming plain old M&S. They were obviously trying to sound a little more modern, but to me it just brings to mind M&Co, the cheap clothing chain. Presumably that’s not the kind of association they were aiming for. To become a household name the world over, only to then cast said name aside, genuinely puzzles me.
> The new displays have been called “cheap” and a “monstrosity,”
Shops being cheap is a good thing.
Why do people remotely care about this?
It worked so well for British Home Stores after all.
This is the sort of thing that happens when a hedge fund starts shorting a company. They put people on the board to make bad decisions.
I’m almost certain they’ll go out of business within the next 20 years.
37 comments
‘Senior reporter Lucy Williamson’
Life is surely thrilling at the Mirror when there’s no dead peoples phone to hack
Can’t believe smiths is still going. It’s only the post offices in them that are keeping them open.
No one has been impressed by anything at WH Smith for decades.
Can’t even see the logo if you wanted to. The god awful website doesn’t show anything but adverts.
To save people the effort: the ‘new’ logo is just the letters “WHS”, plain white font, same blue background, just with an S instead of Smith. At a glance it looks like the NHS logo
Link to new logo: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB9lCs2XMAAs046?format=jpg&name=small
Considering how many are placed in hospitals (and charging travel shop prices ) the NHS looking logo kind of fits
Which people? Who actually cares? Newspaper building up anger where there is none.
If we could just get a couple more ads on that page then maybe it will be so fucking unusable that it will loop back to being useable again.
New logo [here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GB9lCs2XMAAs046?format=jpg&name=medium)
Does look very cheap tbf and hardly an improvement
I had no idea until I just looked at them on Wikipedia, that they invented the ISBN book numbering system.
Utter shite. They’d have made people happy if they’d went back to the old cube logo for the high street.
How does this shop even stay afloat selling this shit you can buy in B&M, never mind a full rebrand?
So now it is just
##WHS
In white writing with a blue background, looks awfully familiar to the NHS logo.
I have two points to make
1. The new logo sucks
2. That is one of the most fucking annoying websites I’ve ever used
People call it Smiths not WHS, it’s not like if marks and spencer change to M&S or Marks which people call do use. It feels like an odd choice
I had to google it separately, the link is riddled with adverts/pop ups.
Its awful and cheap.
The talentless bizarre decision making for everything in the UK is almost impressive.
I’m certain WHSmith is a front for money laundering. There’s no way they’re making money and still on the high street
Very NHS – but also makes you think BHS since it’s a shop!
What is it with people getting disproportionately angry over corporate logos being altered slightly?
Interesting that there’s nothing anywhere suggesting they’ve actually had a rebrand. Can’t find any press releases, all their visual identity guidelines still reference the familiar logo and colour.
Unclear when this is from but some design agency coming up with a style guide:
https://www.visualphilosophy.com/wordpress/portfolio-item/whsmith-brand-guidelines/
WH Smith Plc. website with logos, etc. with no mention of the new colour or logo:
https://www.whsmithplc.co.uk/media/media-gallery/images
I wonder if this is a former Smith’s shop which has been taken over as a going concern in the lead up to Christmas that’s just slapped a new sign up?
Given the similarity with the NHS logo and the difference to the actual Smith’s logo, as well as how bad and amateur it looks, I’m struggling to believe this is an actual rebrand.
Admittedly whoever signed off the new design must be tripping.
looks *awful* holyshit
plus it’s gonna be hard to not call it WHSmith
Can’t believe anyone still goes to WHSmith. Dirty old men and women really keeping it afloat?
I can’t believe they rejected my comic sans version for this shit.
That’s really poor timing to modernise a logo, considering brands like Burberry and Pepsi are all going “retro” now. Probably been talking about it for years but took so long that they missed the trend
WHSmith is one of thee most useless shops in the UK .
I mean the prices are ridiculous and stationary and books are cheaper elsewhere .
The Wational Health Service?
What twonk thought that was a good idea. Thats the worst logo since BT went to a black and white BT in a circle.
Because it’s an awful logo.
Looks like a Chinese NHS. Wational Health Service.
Wasn’t anything wrong with their old one either. Whilst not particularly iconic, it was recognisable. This just just bland and forgettable.
Most people call the store Smiths or Smithies anyway
Would love to see the options they discarded to have that be the best of the bunch.
I’m not against WHSmith doing a rebrand, but this is just a bad one.
In other news WHSmiths bends knee to Premier, opens door for their full take over with bargain basement logo no one asked for.
Not that important in the grand scheme of things I know, but it does look generic as hell. People have always called it Smiths and probably always will; you never hear anyone say “I’m popping into WHS for a magazine”. Why not capitalise on the part of the name that has already lodged itself firmly into people’s minds?
I’ve always thought the same about Marks & Spencer becoming plain old M&S. They were obviously trying to sound a little more modern, but to me it just brings to mind M&Co, the cheap clothing chain. Presumably that’s not the kind of association they were aiming for. To become a household name the world over, only to then cast said name aside, genuinely puzzles me.
> The new displays have been called “cheap” and a “monstrosity,”
Shops being cheap is a good thing.
Why do people remotely care about this?
It worked so well for British Home Stores after all.
This is the sort of thing that happens when a hedge fund starts shorting a company. They put people on the board to make bad decisions.
I’m almost certain they’ll go out of business within the next 20 years.