Giant Food and Stop & Shop, two sister companies that represent a pair of the nation's largest regional supermarkets have shed its previous identities for a bowl of fruit — or a plant — or, um, a multi-colored flower thingy. In any case, gone is the Giant-on-your-side G and the stop lights.

Myself, a native New Englander, I have to admit that I'm sad to see the Stop & Shop logo say goodbye. That red and green traffic light, while paired with some heavy-handed typography and an even heavier containing shape, had an amazing amount of brand recognition for two colored dots. I'm convinced that in my original neck of the woods, you could stick that traffic light symbol up in front of anyone at all and they could recognize the company without fail.

I'm not as familiar with the Giant logo — its modeled, red wordmark slicing through a Giant "G" — it's clunky, dated and a bit over-beveled if you had asked me on the street. And while I feel like the red and green shapes of Stop & Shop could have had new life breathed into it, it would have only solved half the problem. While this new identity system is colorful and has slightly better typography (save the terrible setting of "Stop&Shop"), the real advantage is that it is able to minimize overhead costs by working for both chains without the loss of either name. To that point, some success — as for determining what the logo is… your guess is as good as mine — clearly this is not a logo with the kind of long-term recognition that the traffic-accident-inducing red and green logo of old had.

Stills from an animation developed by Süperfad. So maybe there is the answer of what the logo is.

As for the corporate rationale, Stop & Shop's Consumer Advisor Andrea Astrachan said "Customers talked and we listened… The new look shows customers that we're making changes and committed to providing great food and meal solutions at low prices everyday." And you can always read the press release.

This coming October will be the inaugural season of a new venture from the International Ice Hockey Federation: The Champions Hockey League, that will see the best Hockey teams from Europe battle it out. The simple, yet elegant press release offers the following explanation on the logo: "The most prominent part of the trade mark has the shape of a hockey puck, where two hockey stick blades meet. In the middle of the puck, the rink's centre ice area is shown — with the centre circle and the centre line — depicted." If they've already put so many things in the logo what stopped them from throwing in a Zamboni, goals, and referee? IIHF President added "It's simple, it gives you an immediate association to what you want to communicate and it conveys a touch of class." You heard it here first people… gradients, bevels and glows are the new class. Sarcasm aside, the new logo feels oddly non-European and maybe a tad too American, or a tad too Second Life, there is no sense of restraint or focus, and the typography is downright clunky. Feels like being hit in the teeth with a puck.

Thanks to Andras Sudy and Ivan Philipov for the tip.

The Department of Psychology at Harvard University is currently running a study that examines how people perceive the 'mental' capacities of corporations. Based on 13 corporations, you will take tests — awesomely labeled like Worth, Punishment, Morality, Guilt and Desire — that take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. The real kick is seeing how you rank your brands. For example, the image above shows the results of the brands I like the most: As much as I rely on my Starbucks coffee every single day, and as as much as I use Apple products to make a living, it is Google the brand that I like the most. And so it is, as I use it almost everyday too many times a day.

Quick Note: The opening image above is not exactly a before/after of logos, more of a visual language before/after.

I have always had a soft spot for orange sodas, there is something about the combination of magic syrup, orange and bubbles that is just fun. In Mexico the undisputed taste champion (at least in my personal tests) was Orange Crush and I guess the funky glass bottle it came in had something to do with the experience. A close second was Fanta. So, yes, that was an odd segue to bring us to the subject at hand, but I really wanted to link to the Orange Crush bottle. With more than 70 flavors (including mind-benders like Banana Fermented Milk, Mellon Vanilla and Mint Raspberry) in 180 markets around the world, Fanta, from the Coca-Cola family of products, will be implementing a new identity designed by San Francisco-based Office.

The official description of Fanta, from Coca-Cola, will help put in context the work:

Available in Europe since the 1940s, Fanta was introduced in the United States in 1960. Consumers around the world, particularly teens, fondly associate Fanta with happiness and special times with friends and family. This positive imagery is driven by the brand's fun, playful personality, which goes hand in hand with its bright color, bold fruit taste and tingly carbonation.

New identity elements by Office.

As explained on their web site (Work > Fanta) Office developed a flexible range of branding elements — in the form of a visual vocabulary of playful illustrations, shapes and colors — that can then be put together in a variety of different ways according to each locale's message, audience and the flavors available. As well, an evolution of the logo has been introduced.

Current bottle and can design.

The old and current look of Fanta fits right in the soda market. It's colorful, bold, and busy, relying heavily on swirls and eye-of-the-storm backgrounds to capture the attention. In contrast, the new identity is more cohesive, more evident about what it's selling (oranges!) and, most importantly, it's more varied, diverse and versatile. And the new cans, which may or may not be the final product, look pretty damn fantastic.

Can designs by Office.

Bottle designs taken from Poland's Fanta web site.

Not quite sure where this is from, but it does show what happens when good elements are paired with bad elements.

The new identity hasn't been rolled out in the U.S. yet, but it has started to appear in Europe and Russia. Along with the identity created by Office, there is a new range of characters that inhabit the Fanta world, which I believe were created by animation powerhouse PsyOp, which combined, create a fresh, hip new identity.

I really, really like the work created by Office, it's exuberant and well crafted, and it manages to be both elegant and youthful, and it stands apart from other fruit drinks. More encouraging is that the Fantanas will likely go away.

Thanks to my wife for the tip.

If staying at an Econolodge is too highbrow for you, perhaps one of the 2,000-plus locations of Super 8 Worldwide (formerly just Super 8 Motel) would satisfy. Because I believe everything I read in Wikipedia, I now know this is "the world's largest budget hotel chain," which is a testament to the ubiquity of these motels as you drive through any and all states in the U.S., and how well it has blended into the background since its inception in 1973. The new logo was introduced back in April of this year but has slowly begun to be displayed in about twenty of the properties, including a recent unveiling at the first Super 8 to grace the landscape of Aberdeen, South Dakota. As with any hotel rebranding, this one is meant to signal a change in the amenities and services offered by the chain — there is a press release to tell you all about it.

The old logo had that clunky Nouveau Americana (I just made that up) look that is neither offensive nor appealing. Although I had never paid close attention to the logo and the lettering is not bad at all, that "SUPER" is, well, pretty super. The new logo "featuring a brighter, modern graphic design," takes on a very, very odd direction by appropriating the visual language of sign painters and letterers more commonly found in the produce and deli sections of grocery stores or on the windows of convenience stores and bodegas — forcing Super 8 to be at a perpetual discounted price forever and ever. Which may not be a bad thing, of course, it just seems a strange decision. By maintaining the shape of the old logo, so that changing signs across all locations is as economical as possible, the new logo feels like a monkey in a cage, swinging all over the place with little room to breathe. The "8" is almost a nice graphic and almost fits nicely with the lower bowl of the holding shape, but the rest of elements feel too forced and cheap. The "Super" appears to be an out-of-the-box script typeface, where it would have been interesting to hire a sign painter to draw something unique that would fit perfectly in the shape, instead of forcing stock items locked up by a swoosh… which, as far as swooshes go, it's not that bad. A funky rebranding overall, that even if it's not overly successful at least has offered a new approach.

Thanks to Sue and Jay Ehret for the tip.

A leader in the production and distribution of gas-based domestic appliances, Emegé (pronounced, roughly, eh-meh-heh) is a 75-year-old, family-owned corporation based in Argentina, slowly growing into the international market. With six logos logos since its inception and the latest update in 2003, Emegé has released a contemporary new identity designed by Buenos Aires-based Brea, García Barra y asoc..

Logo in its holding shape.

Clearly the old logo was anything but attractive and might as well have been an electronics store targeted to vampires and mass murderers, so improving upon it was not that difficult. Nonetheless the wordmark created by BGBA is an assertive design that is streamlined and confident. I am regularly skeptical towards unicase wordmarks, but this one works better than most, specially since all characters occupy neatly the same visual width (the M is a little wider) and the lowercase "e"s add a nice rhythm that the monotonous uppercase "E" wouldn't, so instead of arriving at a wordmark with nine horizontal bars this is a good balance of round corners and straight lines. The accent over the last "e" does a great task in making the wordmark more asymmetrical and creating a beginning and an end point.

Packaging and collateral samples.

Logo for a museum within corporate headquarters.

Tag line.

To support the simple and contemporary wordmark, BGBA selected Process Type Foundry's Klavika for use in the identity. One of my favorite things about this project is the tag line and its adorning accent: "Cada día más" which literally translates to "Each day more" is visualized by the uphill slant of the accent, which in Spanish serves as a way to denote that emphasis should be placed on the letter directly below it, so together it works as a nice metaphor for continued and increased positive movement.

Three months ago we reported on the rebranding of AkzoNobel, noting that Saffron had designed the logo but not mentioning that Pentagram (London) had later implemented the identity, I assume I wasn't aware of this at the time, which brings us to the matter at hand… Martijn Rijven, an Amsterdam-based illustrator and designer, was responsible for drawing Bruce (as the pointing man is referred to in the inner circle) and has written an extensive post about the process, with a great video at the bottom, showing the evolution of the drawing and mourning the truncated version of his drawing that was the final logo — or as Rijven describes it, "they appear to have sank him into the ground and left him begging an invisible passer by to take his aged skinny hand to drag him out."

Let me preface by noting that I'm not Canadian. I have never lived in Canada. I've never seen a commercial with a pair of talking beavers named Frank and Gordon hocking telecommunications products and services. Nor have I seen a lot of the previous Bell Canada logos out there in my daily world. And the first instances of the new logo I saw were images of their teaser campaign with its ample negative space and stark typographic compositions — just the right kind of light-handed touch to peak the curiosity of the graphic designer in me.

The former iteration of the Bell Canada logo was somewhat dated with its fat italic type and planetary-like rings swooshing around a stylized profile — belonging to its era of creation as much as one of its predecessors belonged to theirs. This identity worked relatively well in one-color, animated environments (such as in the end of the semi-aquatic rodent commercials), where the swooshes could work their dynamic magic. But time has caught up with the cosmic logo, the apparently polarizing dam building critters and BCE's exclusive contract with Cossette Communication Group.

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Frank and Gordon in action.

A few excerpts from the BCE press release:

"The new Bell brand underlines that we are moving forward as a company and as a service provider, with new services, a new strategy and a new goal," said George Cope, President and Chief Executive Officer of BCE and Bell Canada. "It's a straightforward and customer-focused brand that directly supports the Bell team's goal: To be recognized by customers as Canada's leading communications company."

The new brand platform was conceived by Zulu Alpha Kilo, a new agency founded by Zak Mroueh, the renowned Canadian creative genius behind award-winning brand and advertising campaigns for companies such as Mini, Nike and Pfizer.

The Dream Team composed to execute the new brand platform across Bell's product and service portfolio consists of Zulu Alpha Kilo; the Toronto office of Leo Burnett, one of the world's largest and most respected advertising agencies; Ig2, a top Montreal agency responsible for the French-language platform and Cossette Communication Group, a long-time Bell marketing partner.

To tie the advertising even more closely to the concept of "better" and underline the range of product and benefits Bell offers, the English campaign also makes liberal use of words ending in "er" — faster, easier, music lover, gamer, worker, talker, texter, multitasker — which was also the basis of the company's recent advertising teaser campaign.

Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers with solutions to all their communications needs, including telephone services, wireless communications, high-speed Internet, digital television and voice over IP. Bell also offers integrated information and communications technology (ICT) services to businesses and governments, and is the Virtual Chief Information Officer (VCIO) to small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Normally, if you asked me, I'd tell you that I'm not a fan of overly tight kerning (nor do I advise the sheep stealing antics of letter spacing black letter) and I'll admit that the old man in me was ready to condemn this wordmark from the get-go, however upon further looking I realized that in this rare case the kerning seems to work. There is something onomatopoetic about it — I can hear a bell ringing when I look at the mark. It's likely the round "e" which seems to have struck the sides of the letters on both sides. Or perhaps the fact that the strokes and counters are asymmetrical and create a rhythm not found in many current wordmarks trying to implement more consistent stroking and structure across their letterforms. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to hurt the legibility and aides in the logo's memorability. And the idea that "life happens on Bell's networks" and thus so should the advertising — while a bit cliché — creates a visual strategy that has a lot of promise.

Bell teaser campaign images by Flickr user asianz.

As for the teaser campaign, while it potentially engaged the audience through its cryptic nature, and employs an enviably amount of expensive white space, I'm not sure there was enough meat there for most people to give it more than a glance or a passing comment. Though perhaps it's a breath of fresh air after years of damp beavers.

You can read about some Bell history here and have a look at a Bell Canada endorsed eye dressing kit.

If 100 yards feels like too many or being subjected to the whims of nature is not your thing, then indoor football might just be what you need, and there is a new league waiting to fulfill your full-field-length passes: The Indoor Football League (IFL). Created from a merger of two existing leagues, United Indoor Football and (the awesomely named) Intense Football League, IFL will bring together the teams from each league for next year's season.

Wordmark sans eagle.

The former logos definitely felt second rate and rather unexciting. The new logo at least conforms to first-rate sports logo standards: Mean animal, beveled typography and strokes, lots of strokes. This, of course, does not make it a good logo and by first-rate standards this one falls at the bottom of the pile. Everything that could be wrongly depicted on the eagle is: Wings are too short, the claws grasping the ball are awkward and, poor eagle, appears to have lost his eyeballs. The lettering is nothing we haven't seen before and there is an odd relationship between the width of stems and the height of the serifs that makes it look stretched. The nudges in the top junctions of each letter are kind of cool, but that's about it. The football is overly shiny and at an odd perspective, judging from the laces.

So, while it's an improvement from the previous logos and a more authoritative look, the result is too standard and not well executed. But at least the eagle won't get soaked indoors if it rains.

Thanks to Drew Davies for the tip.

It is significantly difficult to get excited about dryer sheets — those scented thingies you put in the dryer to make your clothes smell better and cling less to your underwear — but this redesign is relatively exciting. Bounce, a product from the infinite P&G empire, recently launched a complete redesign of their full line of dryer sheets, which come in a variety of scents and styles. A large variety.

The old package looked more like its close relative Tide, with the concentric sans serif type and color palette, and it was as unmemorable as most things in the detergent aisle. The new one may not be the package you remember first when you get home and reminisce fondly on your most recent grocery shopping, but it sure goes a long way in giving a small dash of personality to a well-named product. With custom lettering, the new logo that adorns the package is more dynamic and interesting. There are a lot of things that could have been done differently, specially giving it more, well, bounce — there is too much activity happening in the "unc" but not much anywhere else, and the "e" feels remarkable tiny. The "un" is a fun ligature, and I wonder if it could have all been executed as a script instead, keeping the solid sans structure.

Even the exploding supernova in the background seems acceptable. And the idyllic photo of the fresh white sheets floating in a green field — those must be some rich people who can afford an acre or two just to hang their clothes to dry — is so extreme it works. Again, relatively speaking. For a mainstream product like this, this is a nice update that dares to be slightly different. And the family of products (at least in small .jpg form) looks pretty fantastic together.

Thanks to Jonathan Lawrence for the tip.

I was first tipped to this rebranding back in March of this year — thanks Clifton Alexander— but I didn't make much of it. Having never stayed in an Econo Lodge hotel and, from looking at a few photos, being convinced that I would not want to do so in the future for fear of being maimed by a freak with a mask coming out of the hallway as I put a dollar bill in a vending machine, I decided to not follow up on it. But as promised in the press release, "this summer, travelers can anticipate to begin to see the updated logo on exterior signage on new Econo Lodge hotels," more people have sent in e-mails about it, so I'm finally putting it up. Another reason of why I may not have been eager to post it is because there is probably not much to say: Mediocre-but-satisfactory hotel chain has a mediocre-but-quirky wordmark replaced for a mediocre-period shiny swoosh that shimmers — oh, and it has a clever TV ad involving a princess, a frog and a logo. I have to admit though, the swooshy "e" could have gone somewhere in the right hands, but definitely can not say the same for the condensed typeface that looks like the bastard child of Rotis Sans and Optima.

Imagine a utopian destination—a geographic equilibrium servicing the dualing needs of business & pleasure—conveniently near a regional airport. In this mythical location, one might fantasize about relaxing with a proverbial partner and two children at a waterpark, mall, zoo, or even an art museum. Maybe some golfing with executives followed by candid conversation...and closing a deal or two in a comfortable hotel lobby. There would be strong exotic drinks served by colorful and sexy locals in a continental atmosphere drenched in free wi-fi. This natural state of promise, abundance, and uniquely American opportunity does exist. It's not in the Bahamas, not in Second Life, and not in Dubai. It's in Raleigh.

Call the logo Pulse—the given name of the brand unveiled recently by the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors bureau to promote the Capitol City and Wake County as a premiere leisure and meeting destination. Part destination logo, part call-to-action, the City of Oaks has adopted this abstract signifier with enough buried significance to dizzy the spirits of Barthes, Baudrillard, and Sir Walter Raleigh himself.

The following stepped-out explanations have been gleaned from press-releases and other local reports in an attempt to economically decode the formal decisions, and implicit values put forth by the Great Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. This is not a joke—it is a cluster-eff of meaning. Here's the long-version.

12 squares=12 municipalities
Green Squares Around Red Square=City in a Park
Beveled Squares=Pixels
Pixels=Technology of Research Triangle Park
Green=Environment
Yellow-Green=New Growth
Blue=The Carolina Sky
Purple=The County's Elegance and Sophistication
Star=Raleigh, the State Capitol
Loose style of star="The Handmade Imaginitive Quality
of the Visual and Performing Arts in Raleigh"

Puzzling is the fact that two out-of-town firms handled the project. Cundari of Toronto handled the logo, website, attributes, and brand promise. Longwoods International did the quantitative and qualitative research and interviews. All this out-of-town help seemed to infuriate the locals, along with the price tag.

Apart from the formal similarity to, and channeling of, the celebrated Bahamas branding by Duffy & Partners, the most troubling result of visitRaleigh's "Pulse" is that such energy has been given to the logic and PR explanation these anonymous squares. Conceptually, the squares have the potential to be geographically specific "vessels" for photos of all things uniquely Raleigh, but sadly end up containing stock(like) photos. The mark has complex colors break up over photos without serious control and management. Alarming, is the fact that missing from the program is any visual evidence of local authenticity and texture. At current, there is a lack of historical, natural, or local energy exercised in the program, in preference of safe neutrality. The abstract concept of "Pulse" lacks any energy unless of course one googles a geopolitical map of the area, or reads a press-release.

On my first trip to Raleigh, I went straight from the airport, into to a meeting at the IBM compound in Research Triangle and back to the airport. The only exciting leisure moment was a Quiznos luncheon while sitting on some soon-to-be-on-Ebay Herman Miller chairs covered in bespoke Paul Rand red, green and blue fabrics. One can only wish that Mr. Rand had been around to crack this one.

Of all the industries or products to discuss logos about I never thought that ceiling fans would be one of them. While not a tremendously exciting rebranding, I think it's important to highlight products and organizations that may be less glamorous or sexy — because fried chicken is so sexy. Hunter Fan Company, established in 1886 by a father-son team of John and James Hunter that started by making ceiling fans and now purveys other kinds of spinning blade mechanisms and air-influencing machinery, recently changed their logo in what they are calling "the biggest brand overhaul" for the company. I sure hope so. The old logo, if you can even begin to ignore the shameful volumizing, was a charming wordmark — perhaps even with a dash of cool a la Von Dutch — but it was definitely dated. With that name and that execution, and not being familiar with the brand, it felt like a logo moe in place on the side of a rifle. The new logo, which may not have the personality or exuberance of the old one, is at least more elegant, softer and like it would exude more confidence in hanging one of their products over your bed. My favorite part is the color combination, there is something very pleasant and contemporary about it — in combination with the script typeface it reminds me a lot of Harrods, which is a good thing. As opposed to the old logo, the new one looks to be a typeface out of the box instead of a more personable custom script. Even so, anything that rids us of bubblified logos is a win.

Thanks to Jason Williams for the tip.

Given that I visit more web sites than I should, I rarely spend more than a minute on any of my internet stops — and it's usually those with pretty pictures that manage to keep me around the longest. Avid Brand New commenter Jerry Kuyper pointed me today to the blog of Claude Singer, a strategist and non-designer for firms like Siegel + Gale and Lippincot… After many (many) minutes I finally stopped, not because I had to, but because I had gone through the entire archive. In other words, I recommend it, and suggest you consider adding it to your branding reads for a fresh take on the subject.

The first season of Lost came when we made the decision to not have Cable TV or even rabbit ears to catch the networks so I completely missed the boat (ha! get it?) on that one. I'm sure, had circumstances been different, I would be a devout follower of the series and completely geeked out about a rebranding happening within the show. Jamison Wieser, a Brand New reader, explains the brand mysteries behind the Dharma Initiative for you, Brand New style.

I don't know whether this is a positive or negative, but I have never eaten at Popeyes, the fast food chain serving fried chicken that seems to occupy a similar cult status to White Castle. Popeyes was served at Beyoncé and Jay Z's wedding, it is the butt of the joke in films like Rush Hour and Little Nicky (okay, that may not be saying much but…), it finds its way to all sorts of lyrics, and people are always willing to admit it as a guilty pleasure. From what I gather, the spicy, Cajun-style, fried chicken there is delectable. I'll find out one day, maybe. As kooky as the following to this fast food emporium is, its former logo was equally amusing (in that kitschy, fast food sort of way) and the colorful red-blue-and-yellow sign on the facade always stood out. With a new identity designed by Pentagram's DJ Stout, Popeyes is positioning itself to be slightly more upscale (relatively speaking) while retaining its quirkiness.

Unlike the old identity, the new one features three elements — the Popeyes wordmark, the crest above, and an isolated "Dancing P" from the crest — that work together to create a more dynamic range of pieces (see below) instead of just emblazoning the logo on everything from cups to napkins. So, in all fairness, it's hard to compare the two logos in the opening image, as the old one is clearly more "fun" against the new wordmark that looks static by comparison, but comes alive in applications. It's a nice move to maintain the basic shapes of the letters from the old logo, except for the "Y," and redraw them to appear straight as, aside from the spicy chicken, it's the only element to tie in the old Popeyes with the new.

The boldest move in this identity is changing the colors, and I'm not positive it was necessary; boldening the Easter yellow was necessary though. The move to orange and red is pretty but sacrificing the blue is a little radical and could have probably been used as an accent color. Another new element is the use of black and white photographs of jazz musicians — which relate to Popeyes' Louisiana roots — which I wonder how long it will last, it looks more like a temporary promotion than an element upon which to build a new identity. The images look completely out of place: Fast food fried chicken and good music is not an association I am willing to make any time soon. Despite these two apprehensions, I do like the new feel and it's definitely a step in the right direction for this chain. The true test will be if Popeyes is served when Beyoncé and Jay Z renew their vows.

Britain's UKTV is a network of nine channels providing every kind of content from gardening to drama, while providing a range of those channels with +1 timeshifts, meaning the same programming runs one hour later from its original. I mention this since the logo above is the new name and identity for what used to be UKTV Gold +1, and is one of three channels getting a new name and logo to be broadcast this coming October.

Until now all UKTV channels — except for the Dave channel which dances to its own beat — followed the same brand architecture formula of using the lovely UKTV logo locked up with the name of the channel in Gotham, and when necessary, the "+1" identifier. I have to admit that I am not familiar at all with the content of these channels, nor the associations viewers make with them, so I will have to defer to our British counterparts to ascertain the appropriateness of these changes (or to correct me of any wrong assumptions I make). As far as logos, well, the feelings are global I think.

At first I thought the Watch logo was supposed to be focused on reality TV, running every single Big Brother episode ever; the name and watchful hidden camera icon make it seem overly voyeuristic. Instead, from what I can gather, it just runs a few drama programs and bills as its flagship the Richard & Judy show which is moving from competitor Channel 4 to UKTV. It's an eye catching logo for sure, and is somewhat hypnotic, so as a reaction I like it, but I'm not sure I get it. The typography seems needlessly futuristic.

Alibi will be devoted to crime shows and other drama programming. I kind of like this one, specially with the play of the missing dot on the first "i". And the typewriter typeface adds to the private investigator mood.

The absolute worst in this new package is for the comedy channel Gold, with a very unpleasant typeface in a very uncomfortable curve. There is no hierarchy, no distinction between tag line and name, and it sure as hell isn't funny. Well, it's funny like watching someone fall flat on their face.

Unlike Discovery, which has been making some hits and misses with their rebrandings but have, overall, maintained a certain simplicity throughout, these UKTV channels — developed by UKTV's marketing team with Red Bee Media — are very disjointed and appear to dilute the brand with highly dissonant logos.

Thanks to Paul Lloyd Johnson for the tip.

Guest Editorial by Guilherme Machiavelli

In 1965, soon after the military coup d'état in Brazil, a media conglomerate was founded and, in the following years, experienced an spectacular growth. This conglomerate, called Rede Globo or, more simply, Globo, became the most influential broadcasting network in Brazil (and, one could argue, in Latin America). (More on Wikipedia). Its socio-cultural importance has been commented often not only inside the country and the continent, but even in other parts of the world, such as England, with BBC's highly polemical "Beyond Citizen Kane", a documentary that even now, 15 years after its first british transmission, has not been officially exhibited in Brazil, due to pressure made by the brazilian corporation itself.

Since its inception, Globo's identity has passed through various transformations, which, curiously, seem to have become increasingly minimal — the last four logos had a few subtle changes, always attempting to keep up with the latest trends, without making any real improvement. The designer behind this brand is the Austrian Hans Donner, the same responsible for great part of the opening and closing credits and logos of shows produced in Rede Globo in the last 20 years. The globe-inside-a-square-inside-another-globe is now a fairly ubiquitous symbol in Brazil, being instantly recognizable by anyone who has lived in the country even for a short while.

Evolution of the Rede Globo logo.

With that in mind, the new logo actually does a good job in simplifying the (in the lack of better word) intricate combination of metallic glows and gradients that have, for good or bad, become the key elements in Globo's identity. The ratio of the "window" has also change to reflect the more common widescreen television sets sold now. The execution seems to be a little more subtle and well-made than the previous symbol, diminishing its confusing pattern of colors inside the metallic globe, while it focuses on the RGB colors — adding a new and less distracting texture. The light is slightly more well balanced too, without the blinding glow in the upper left from the previous iteration. Conceptually, I found myself almost liking this logo, but it still seems overly complicated. The idea of a globe showing itself inside another globe with a TV frame feels like a good way of representing a media conglomerate so focused in television, but my real grudge stays in the various glows, gradients and metallic shines that permeate the whole composition.

But, this rebranding feels to me as the exact reproduction of the way Globo has been doing its business for a long time: Always staying on the safe side, changing practically nothing since the eighties, only with the eventual varnish to keep with a "modern look and feel". One can see this through the evolution of the brand, of course, but in other aspects as well: The prime-time schedule of the broadcasting company has not changed in all those years. With a combo of three soap-operas and one news program, Globo has maintained its status as audience champion for quite some time. With that will to maintain its own status quo, one might ask exactly how Globo will fare against Rede Record, its newest and most strong rival nowadays.

Guilherme Machiavelli is a designer/journalist/student in Brazil who works mainly with editorial and web design, along with the eventual branding project.

Thanks to Marcio Caparica for the tip.

At the heart (pun!) of every city or country branding effort is a zealous desire to portray the destination as world-class and home to the greatest people on earth — and, sometimes, like New York or Slovenia, there is nothing sweeter to communicate this than with a heart. Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, unveiled a new identity to help promote tourism and enhance the perception of a city that has experienced its share of political, cultural and religious troubles from the 1970s to the 1990s, and has only recently experienced positive growth and perception. And what better way to grow than by opening your heart.

Designed by London-based Lloyd Northover, the new identity revolves around a heart that nicely takes the shape of a B, with the city name set at a vertical angle in a custom-made typeface called "Moment". Even though the typeface looks plenty like House Industries' Chalet (the 1980 style), having a proprietary typeface that partners and vendors can freely download (go get your copy now!) is probably much more feasible and economical than forcing everyone to license a retail typeface. The B/heart icon is interesting, but it seems to do little to differentiate Belfast from any number of other cities or countries whose name starts with a B that could also adopt the exact same idea, from Brussels to Brazil (trust me, it would work for Brazil. Ahem.). Nonetheless, as a way of avoiding a logo with a local landmark this succeeds well. The typeface is pretty generic and has a retro-ish feel that I don't think helps establish Belfast as a forward-looking city. (Interesting that there is this new trend of Bauhaus-inspired typography being used to communicate "contemporary," see Euronews).

The new identity also comes with a number of tag lines, stemming from the main one, "Be Part of It," that can be used freely in all sorts of communications from the Belfast City Council and Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau. And it also comes in a variety of colors for versatility. The final result although not terribly exciting is lively and energetic, and as much as I am not convinced by the relevance of the heart to Belfast I can certainly appreciate that they got to it first and can own the idea of the B/heart for a city or country.

In stealth mode, one of the largest manufacturers of all sorts of electronic paraphernalia, Philips, updated its wordmark. (For those wondering, yes, we are a little late to the party on this one; the change took place a couple of months ago, so I apologize for the non-breaking news aspect of this). The changes are almost unnoticeable, specially to the end-user, which would make anyone skeptical about the need for a change at all. But considering the immense amount of consumer and specialty products that Philips produces, I doubt this was merely a superficial, aesthetic change to satisfy some C-level executive's whim. All the modifications point to a need for better performance and reproducibility.

On the image above we can see some of the changes: The old logo is in red, the new one in blue, and then overlayed. The biggest change is the width of the characters and the additional spacing between characters, resulting in a slightly wider wordmark, but not drastic enough where they are sacrficing a need for additional space to render the logo. The angles of the "S" and "L" have also been modified to be more unique, and not just a 90-degree angle.The other big change was to go from a geometric, monoweight sans serif to a more humanist sans serif, with clearer contrast between thicks and thins; I imagine this was done because the wordmark was "gaining weight" at the joints when reproduced, while having these slightly curved joints would reproduce as straight corners when molding a logo out of plastic or metal or any other material. In print and online, however, the changes will be more noticeable, and the new wordmark feels more personable and friendly and less mechanic. Overall, this is an interesting change, and while I usually prefer my sans serifs monoweight and geometric I can see how this wordmark benefits from the small tweaks. For a brief overview of the evolution of the Philips logo, go here.