Consumer Reports Rebrand

Consumer Reports has a long history dating back to 1936 as an organization dedicated to unbiased product testing, investigative journalism, consumer-oriented research, public education and consumer advocacy.

As part of my summer working with Consumer Reports. I explored a rebrand that better fit the refreshed direction of the company with the goal to stay relevant with the younger generations in a world of YouTube and blog reviews.

In addition to the logo a major part of the Consumer Reports brand is their iconic rating system. A mortified versions of Harvey balls. The red circle indicated the highest rating, the half red and white circle being the second highest rating, the white circle being neutral, the half black circle being the second-lowest rating, and the entirely black circle representing the lowest rating possible.

Bringing together a color language for each of the content focus areas, with a mascot to help guide you through the experience.

Exploring the history of their magazine

Exploring a shape language to pair with the color language for each of the content focus areas: cars, electronics, babies & kids, health, appliances, money and home & garden.

Shape exploration, going deep on the idea of a speech bubble as Consumer Reports is activating conversation around consumer issues.

Typeface and lockup exploration

As previously mentioned the Consumer Reports rating system is a major part of their brand, which also required exploration. My exploration led to more questions than answers. Should it remain a 5 point system? Does it convert to a percentage scale? Is there another scale that works better for the audience? How granular of a scale needs to be represented? How granular is the data collected during the testing process? As such I left the rating system question unanswered for the larger team to explore.

Above you see a couple different scales I explored, with shape and color independent of the testing context. If you are curious of what a deeper exploration of their rating looks like, check out my data visualization work I did with the cars team.