Les Mousquetaires (The Musketeers), is a leading French super and hypermarket chain founded in 1969, employing 130,000 people across Europe in over 4,000 stores, with a turnover of €35 million (US$47 million) in 2008. The name is, of course, a direct reference to Alexandre Dumas’ 19th century novel about the adventures and escapades of a group of sword fighting, good living, soldier friends in the reign of Louis 13th of France. The Musketeers are synonymous of friendship, adventures and the good life in France and are part of popular culture, an association this supermarket has happily adopted

Les Mousquetaires (The Musketeers), is a leading French super and hypermarket chain founded in 1969, employing 130,000 people across Europe in over 4,000 stores, with a turnover of €35 million (US$47 million) in 2008. The name is, of course, a direct reference to Alexandre Dumas’ 19th century novel about the adventures and escapades of a group of sword fighting, good living, soldier friends in the reign of Louis 13th of France. The Musketeers are synonymous of friendship, adventures and the good life in France and are part of popular culture, an association this supermarket has happily adopted.

The old identity was an incongruous, complex juxtaposition within a hexagon shape (which supposedly symbolises the map of France), of increasingly smaller Musketeers, and a small rendering of the name in a curved band, all reproduced in a slightly aggressive and very “discount feel” colour scheme of black and orange. I have seen this logotype for years in my travels throughout France and have always been astonished by its dated imagery, its questionable appropriateness for a supermarket logo and its visual confusion. Coinciding with their 40th anniversary, Les Mousquetaires created this new brand — created by Paris-based design agency Carr? Noir, part of Publicis Group — in the early part of 2009 and in the last months of the year began implementing the changes.

The design objectives, to quote Jean-Philippe Chavatte, Associate Director of Carr? Noir, are to “Communicate a genuine image of renewal, to simultaneously evoke dynamism, modernity and innovation” and to distance the negative connotations of the old brand: “The hexagon which does not correspond to the international dimension of the group, the cross which could be a barrier in certain countries and the Musketeers silhouette which is too nationalistic and basic an image.” The new brand represents “the man, the entrepreneur” says Chavatte, communicating the spirit of this group of 3,000 independent store managers who own 100% of the group’s capital. It expresses “Confidence and balance, force and determination and the vision of the independent entrepreneur.” But enough for the press releases, now for the design.

What can I say? In the interests of fairness can I find anything positive to say about this work? Honestly, no. I have rarely, in my twenty years experience of working in branding design in Europe seen anything quite as disastrous as this. It has just been launched, and it already looks dated. And confusing. Is it inspired by a 1970s Olympics pictogram? Well, I have seen much better. Maybe Japanese Kanji and Hiragana inspiration? Consult a real calligrapher. Perhaps a motorway and bridge for a construction group? Again, I have seen much better in an industry that has less call for design, marketing and communications.

This is a meaningless collection of curves now that the Musketeer has been killed off. The graphic treatment of the curves and swooshes are all different creating a disturbing visual conflict and lack of cohesion. The positive/negative space relationship is uncomfortable. How will this work on a dark background or on supermarket signage? The typestyle is a small but inelegant improvement but remains so small as to be hardly legible in print. It has managed to preserve its old aggressiveness. And there is no communication of “renewal or the entrepreneur’s spirit.” This is a predictable, uninspiring and characterless mark that communicates virtually nothing. I am amazed that a leading branding agency is capable of producing work like this today and getting away with it. Or that a major industry player can select such work and endorse it.

But it doesn’t end there. Intermarch? is a chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets owned by the Les Mousquetaires group, which has also dramatically changed its identity. The old logotype combined the Musketeers icon with a bold all capitals rendering of the name in orange and black, continuing the discount feel. Whereas the new Musketeers signature is in lowercase with capital “E”s, the new Intermarch? brand is lowercase with capital “R”s. The typography has some of the same disturbing characteristics of the Musketeer brand: a combination of curves and angular shoulders. The inverted “a” for the “e” and the tapering stroke on the “R” (a reminder of the sword?) all add to the uncomfortable feeling.

The differentiation of type and size of store: Super, Hyper, Contact and Express is spelled out in a narrow black rule with a gradation and changes typestyle with each store type: bold caps, light lowercase italics and even a script for Contact, the local neighbourhood store. I hope the consumers can make sense of all this because I, as a branding creative director, am pretty lost. And in terms of strategy, coherence, design quality and visual standards, things can’t get much worse.

Thanks to Beno?t Champy for the tip.

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