Brinks Home Security cameras

In October of last year Brink’s Home Security, the 26-year-old consumer and residential division from security and protection company Brink’s, was spun off as its own company and went public. As part of the agreement, Brink’s Home Security would have three years to drop “Brink’s” from its name. This week the company announced its name change to Broadview Security.

Last year, we hired Landor, a top-tier branding agency, to help us develop our new name and brand. As part of Landor’s research and development process, we involved employees and customers to help us determine the key elements of our organization, our brand and our legacy that are essential to who we are. In addition, Landor conducted external market research to ensure the brand resonates with suppliers, partners, customers, and other external audiences. Finally, we tested and narrowed down our choices. Then, Broadview Security was selected.

There is no confirmation or clarification whether Landor also did the identity, but hopefully they will be happier with this project than they were with Syfy. I do like the name change, it sounds comforting and it’s probably better to take a few steps away from the Brink’s name which is typically more associated with their armored trucks and people with bullet-proof vests and shotguns.

In terms of the identity, the softer and more vibrant blue is definitely an improvement over the gloomy and corporate dark blue of the previous logo, certainly more consumer oriented. I can perfectly imagine the pitch for this logo as the sideway parentheses being like hands protecting and cradling the consumers, and it sort of works. You do get a sense of protection and support. For some reason I keep wanting to see a smile with the lower parenthesis, but the logo does not seem to be smiling at me. For a consumer brand this is remarkably serious, which goes well with the subject at hand, so it’s nice to see that they didn’t go with lowercase, bubble typography to appear friendlier and warmer. Overall, if I were contracting security for my home, this identity lets me know that Broadview Security means business.