As the country recovers from the economy, businesses and consumers are both looking forward to a fresh start. But wallets are slow to open up to big businesses. So how does a company get people to feel a bit better about using money on them? By redesigning their corporate logo!

A company’s logo is like a person’s face. If you can’t remember a person’s face, it’s difficult to remember facts about them. Several big name companies including Wal-Mart, Sysco and Kraft Foods all decided to get a logo facelift. They went from a bold, block, corporate look on their logo, to a more inviting, brighter and friendlier look. Logotypes are rounder, lighter and lowercase and colors are brighter and cheerful.

Stars, smiles, and bursts also found there way into theses happier logos. Wal-Mart, trying to change its image after some attack over labor practices, changed its military style star, to a more cheerful twinkle. And what better way to say that your company is environmentally friendly than to add a leaf to the logo the way Superfresh, QuickChek, and Sysco have done.

Even sports teams looking for a change in fortunes decided that a logo upgrade might be the answer. This year, the Detroit Lions, who last year became the only team in NFL history to lose all of its regular season games, will follow the Arizona Cardinals in trying to reach success after changing their logo.

Design has long been influenced by what’s going on in the world. And when things don’t go as planned for a company, they often try to give themselves a logo upgrade first. This shows the consumer that they have changed, they’re better or upgraded, even though they didn’t touch any other part of their company. Kind of like a corporate nip and tuck. And they say I’d never make it in medical school.