Background:

When the semiconductor company S3 merged with Diamond Multimedia, a new direction and positioning was forged by the business. What better time for a name change! The old names were not bad, but they did not have much pizzaz. SonicBlue certainly changed that and made a much more interesting parent brand for their very cool (and well named) Rio and other line of products.

This name might have received our full perfect 10 rating if it weren't for the unfortunate fact that Sonic the hedgehog is a well known character in the very closely related industry of video games.

After a breakthrough name it is very unusual to also see a breakthrough logo. After all, many staff members, management and investors were probably very comfortable with the old conservative names. While they are still absorbing the very different new name, you don't need to shock them with the logo too! Later, when they get comfortable with their hip new cool name (and resulting customer base) the logo can always be refreshed and updated.