Under Consideration's Brand New has released a year's end roundup of the best and worst logo designs to grace 2009. Slotting in at the third worst was the new logo for Xe, the rebranded Blackwater Worldwide.
Certainly Blackwater deserves a severe degree of public derision for the conduct of its employees in the 2007 Baghdad shootings. Nothing excuses the murder of innocent civilians.
But Brand New is not about discussing the misconduct of corporations or the reasons for their rebranding, at least not any more than is absolutely necessary to provide background. Yet of the seven paragraphs posted by the site introducing the logo for comments, only the final and shortest was about the logo itself. Briefly mentioned was the name change, and this was reported rather uncritically. The comments on the post display an even more severe lack of critical response to the logo. Almost every comment simply attacks Blackwater/Xe for its past failings, without even attempting to objectively criticize the logo itself.
Now, to avoid falling into the opposite of the mistake I have pointed out, I offer my critique of the Xe logo. It may not be the "in-depth" discussion that might be seen from a designer in the identity/branding field, but I can hope to offer a slightly more casual view that might approximate the view of the average observer.
First, my major criticism of the branding is the decision to pronounce it as "ZEE" rather than "EX-EE". From a look at the logo, the natural response is to pronounce the letters independently, perhaps even to see them as some sort of abbreviation. The company's choice of pronunciation just muddles the brand identity and makes it difficult for a viewer to associate the company and the logo.
However, the rest of the logo design seems acceptable to me. Sure, the new logo doesn't scream "private security contractor" at me, but does Apple's scream "computers"? Does Mitsubishi's scream anything industrial? No. But these logos are simple, and memorable for it. Provided the company doesn't crash and burn this new branding and overcomes the hurdle of the pronunciation, it will be a good mark.
It breaks out of the box a bit. It plays with what negative space is. It's hard-edged most of the time but then organic and curvy once. It implies professionalism but it also implies uniqueness. It's a good mark.
That's the objective criticism that Xe ought to have been given before. (To those commenters who did actually provide legitimate criticism: I saw you and I thank you. My scorn is directed at the others.)