Pfizer tries to inject some life into its logo (but does it succeed?)

You may have heard of pharmaceutical company Pfizer over the last few months, what with it having jointly created a somewhat notable vaccine. Keen to emphasise its "extraordinary focus on science", the company has revealed full rebrand, doing away with its pill-shaped logo.

The new logo features a double helix spiral, and marks the first major redesign for Pfizer in 70 years. The replacement of the pill with DNA is said to signify a shift from commerce to science, and while hardly one of the best logos of all time, it's an appropriately clean, clinical new look – if a little dull.

Pfizer says the two-tone blue helix is more representative than the previous pill design of the company's slogan: Breakthroughs that change patients' lives. "Pfizer is no longer in the business of just treating diseases," says Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla. "We're curing and preventing them."

Along with the updated logo, the rebrand includes a new typeface, Noto Sans. Designed by Google "to internationalise the internet", the font family is, according to Pfizer, "sleek and practical, minimal and inviting – and asserts itself only when asked to" (presumably that means it also comes in bold). Check out our best free fonts for more typographical inspiration. 

Pfizer has also stripped its eight-colour palette down to a simplified, two-tone blue colour scheme. "In an industry awash with blue," Pfizer says, "we're doubling down". Fair enough.  

The result of 18 months of work by Brooklyn-based design agency Team, Pfizer's new identity comes at a good time for the company. According to Fierce Pharma, a recent survey revealed that Pfizer's reputation improved by 48 per cent among Americans after reports of its coronavirus vaccine's 95 per cent effectiveness rate. 

While a new logo is unlikely to boost its image quite as much as the vaccine for a world-stopping virus, we'd say the transition from pill to DNA successfully suggests a shift from commerce to science. That said, being one of the few pharmaceutical companies people know by name right now, we can't help but wish Pfizer had gone for something a little more distinctive and contemporary.

But while it isn't the most exciting rebrand we'll see in 2021, Pfizer's new look gets the job done. One thing's for sure – it's a lot less baffling than the first rebrand we saw this year, courtesy of the CIA. 

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