The most exiting thing that happened this week (Besides this weekend’s second round of elections for the Mayor of Prishtina) was the launch of the second Mobile carrier in Kosova - ipko. While their week-long teaser campaign “A jeni gati?” (”Are you ready?”) followed by a red-dot was a tried successful approach to advertising, the payback wasn’t as sweet as I had expected. The problem with the teasers is usually that you can never top the teaser itself, because you run into the risk of promising to much and falling short on the delivery. I’m not to say that the logo or the campaign isn’t successful, but the solution for the logo did not deliver on may levels.

I was lucky enough to see the logo prior to its launch and my first reaction was “IPICO !!” - What!?. I’m not playing devils advocate here, but the space between the broken down letter K is almost identical to the relation within other letters in the logo, which makes my mind read “IPICO” - That’s all I see now. Also, I always like the idiosyncratic approaches to design in which a designer ads an element that doesn’t really require an explanation. But, in this case the black dot below the letter ‘i’ just makes me wonder and ask “Why not somewhere else?!” Overall, I like the minimal approach of the logo other than the two minimal objections I have towards it.

On the flip-side. The website is nicely put together. Its backbone is a bit soft and not working as well as it can, but hopefully with time it’ll pick up its pace and live up to its expectations. Also, the photography - for the lack of a better word - is just plain brilliant. Below is a sample of a photo from the website and here’s the link www.ipko.net.

Now I’m hoping that the products will match this ambitious and successful campaign.

I wonder what Vala Mobile will do to counter-attack this offensive. (www.valamobile.com)

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