BearingPoint: The new name for KPMG Consulting

New: BearingPoint name and logo

Launched: October 2, 2002

Story in brief:
This is the last of the consultancy spin-offs by the biggest accounting firms. First was Accenture, escaping (just in time) from Arthur Andersen, then Braxton out of Deloitte and (briefly) Monday out of PwC, before submerging with IBM.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Rand Blazer
Naming and identity design - Subject to confirmation, the McLean office of ad agency Arnold Worldwide, retained last July to create the new brand identity.

First Impressions:
I'll say it again... the easy names have all been taken, so even the best new names live at the edge of our comfort zones. But this one is a little further out, a functionally cumbersome solution... an obscure phrase, (especially so in the non-English world) mashed into a word, assuming our cooperation in its illicit midpoint capitalization. (But the navigation association is nice.)

The logo, a pretty italic typeface under a two-color swoosh, is spectacularly unoriginal. The forms don't clearly relate, and the combination lacks both force and elegance.