Because of abuse by people, "pit bull" has become a symbol of fear and danger.  An impressive group of volunteers believe this is unfounded prejudice, and is determined to combat discrimination against loyal and loving animals via "StubbyDog," a communications campaign soon to be launched. A virtual identity design team contributed (pro bono) an endearing dog, peeking into a window as if rediscovering us, with hope and caution. Beautiful imagery.

"The company that pretty much invented online car insurance," comprehensively  redesigned (by its ad agency) to express "smartness in the service of simplicity."  Much stronger;  see system (based on Eric Olson's modification of the typeface Bryant).

In 2005, when Computer Associates changed its legal name to CA, Inc., I said the name "looks to me like a placeholder... to move to initials is almost never to move to strength" (see 2005 Review). By adding "Technologies" to its logo (but not to its legal name), CA has now put a band-aid on its bad decision. "We are changing the image of who we are" said CEO McCracken, perhaps too hopefully.

2005, by Sequel

This New York City non-profit promotes alternatives to autos, such as bicycle lanes.  In 2008, Onoma designed a smart symbol incorporating the name and URL (transalt.org) in an arrow. Doyle has now provided more purely graphic symbology.  A classic solution, applied freshly.

The CEO of this hi-tech battery maker came to Roger van den Bergh for a name fix ("Mobius" had legal issues) and got a bright solution, the Leyden jar being the original battery component. Symbol? the anode/cathode diagram that means "battery."

Batelco is the leading telecom in the Kingdom of Bahrain, serving some 4.5 million customers. The new mark is simply a monogram, a B  (in both alphabets) intended to  emphasize the company-kingdom connection.

The letterforms are the mark; the fish is a stand-in for "ever-changing images," still and animated.  Official launch is December 10, when AOL common stock begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

For some history on "dynamic branding," see Roger van den Bergh on Identity Forum

2004
by Desgrippes Gobé

A sharp break in personality, for sure, said to express "commitment to change" from mere wires and networks toward "New Zealanders doing what inspires them."  We'll Review it soon.

To celebrate Pfizer's absorption of Wyeth, this "refresh" brightens, tilts and 3Ds the oval (now a pill?) and un-Bodoni's the letterforms, diluting the integrity of Gene Grossman's 1989 mark of innovation and authority.  (A humbler, more sensitive pharma?)

1989
by Anspach Grossman Portugal

Celebrating its birthday, Hartford has turned it stag's head a bit, added landscape and subtracted serifs. (Is this progress? What happens in year 201?)

In 1861, the stag was standing in water (a hart, in a ford). See logo evolution here.

Romania's Rompetrol, branded by D'Arcy in 2003, reached out to Saffron to create a new retail brand with international growth potential. Brilliantly named, and rest assured: this soft conceptual mark gets the necessary hard-edged 2D and 3D treatment on site (architecture by SF-based Eight Inc.). See it here.

(Note: Though Identityworks' focus is on corporate identity, we often use "Also Noted" to honor category brand identity design of exceptional merit.)

"National September 11 Memorial & Museum At The World Trade Center" is the successor to "World Trade Center Memorial Foundation." Mercifully, Landor shortened its communicative name, then gave it a logo that is direct and (when you see blue sky) gut-wrenching. (Question: Does it even need "Memorial"?)

2005, by Gene Grossman

Pattern Energy Group is a start-up, created to develop, build and operate renewable energy generation and transmission assets (primarily wind) across North and Latin America. Erin Fortes, contracted as Creative Director reporting to CEO Mike Garland, retained an ex-Landor virtual team to name and design the company. Read Shore's The Story Behind The Name.

It's official: B of A has put Gene Casey's well-hung bull out to pasture. He will be missed. Brand Union, The, pulled the trigger. But wait: the bull will survive, to brand U.S. retail broking (later identified as Wealth Management); that leaves the door open, a tiny crack, to a someday spinout and institutional relevance again.

Russian Railways, refreshed and broadened with elegant type -  р, ж, а

Correction: From Alex Pankratov:  The last letter is a lowercase д (5th letter of the alphabet), in its "mirrored 6" (six) form.

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This was GMAC Bank, a unit of GMAC (which was General Motors Acceptance Corp. until GM sold it in 2006, along with a ten year license to the initials GMAC.)  Wisely, the Ally unit is running faster, to exit the GM shadow and to create its own destiny.

Joel Portugal: "The best identity job I have seen in many years. Great name, great identifier. Too bad a great typographer didn't get to refine the logo. The positioning is also right on target. It's the wave of the future in banking--trust. Watch the community banks capture share of market. Only thing wrong with the program is I understand it's the old GMAC. Can an identity makeover change a brand? Stay tuned."

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It's an online listing of 200 million Americans (including me), brightly refreshed. See the brand-building story from the internal team, and the new corporate site.

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This rebranding adds wit, warmth and personality to a regional ski resort in the person of "Wooly," a trail-tusked mountain mammoth monogram. See slide show.

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Singapore Press Holdings, celebrating its 25th and signaling its transition from press to multimedia (though one can still imagine a press roller in the p-h ligature). Thanks, Dan

Significant rebranding of Brazil's leading flat-steel mill. The U-symbol evokes a melting pot.

NBC will change the name of its SciFi channel to Syfy because it cannot legally own "SciFi." But the cost is huge.  In my mind it owned "science fiction" on TV; now it will own merely an odd set of  letters in a sea of  them, in my exploding list of TV choices.  Reminds me of CW, which does not mean Country & Western...  and like Syfy, means nothing (except in Poland, where I'm told syfy is a really poor choice).

until July 7:
         

This was an arts & design school without a graphic identity. Now it has one. Read Steven Heller's excellent piece on it in The New York Times, at http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/graphic-content-cooper-unions-new-logo/?hp

One simple red slash (with a touch of ribbon) replaces the old, odd speed-slashes in this relatively routine logo/livery refreshment, by Marc Gobé's new partnership with Laga.

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A Person-brand, for a leader in logo (and type) design. Newlyn created this typeface for his personal stationery, to be engraved by Royal Mint craftsmen. Miles'  elegant new site (and type store) was designed for him by Gabi Toth, who also designed Identityworks.com.         

Anticipating its 100th birthday, a trashy swooshmark is replaced with one of sheer authenticity, evoking the 1930s if not 1909. (Far more practical too, in b&w.)

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More feathers, also nicely done. Retains three birds, adds a more proprietary 'sunrise' color, instantly looks more professional. See the livery, and Commgroup's portfolio.

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Feathers, nicely done by Lippincott for this Salvadoran airline.

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The most exciting, probably the most impactful branding of 2008 was designed by Sol Sender's team (then at  Sender LLC in Chicago, now at VSA Partners). You must hear Sender tell the story. Thanks, Armin for reporting at Brand New.

Les Landes, proud to be the largest (in area) of France's 95 départements, seeks to add excitement-via-branding to its development advertising. Dragon Rouge gave it XL, calling this a name change (though it seems more an ad device); yes, Extra Large is intended ("living in the Landes means living in a larger dimension"), and is also a play on the département's  postal code, 40.  Blue and green convey its seaside location, and the pine trees that pretty well cover its sandy terraine.

One of the world's oldest airlines, it's a close second to Aeromexico (and leads  internation-ally);  it "felt the need to create a new image" more competitive, innovative, dynamic.

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Quietly, since 1995 Pentagram has cleaned and refreshed various pieces of Princeton, most notably providing a lively portfolio of banners, shields and tigers for the Athletic department (2004-6). Their influence percolated upwards, leading to the 2006 request for a more universal University signature (more here)...  for which Matthew Carter designed the custom face Princeton Monticello (more here).

Bierut has also been working (and teaching) at brand Yale, making him an expert on branding in the university environment. We'll follow up.

Voted world's best logo by Wolda, this stick figure was commissioned by Rupert Murdoch for an internal New Corp. employee campaign called One Degree, to promote corporate action on climate change. (The idea — if everyone changes behavior by one degree we can change the planet.) More here.
Noted by Wojtek Piotrowski, Poland

Media agency Mindshare (previously MindShare), a WPP company,  has rebranded. In addition to lower-casing the S, to reinforce its position as "the agency of the future" it commissioned a moving image designed by Moving Brands. (Sorry, I can't make it move for you. Click it to see site.)

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To consolidate its Nordic region-wide business services (logistics, shipping, IT) in competition with FedEx etc., Norway Post created the new brand "Bring," then redesigned its heritage "Posten" mark to assert the unity and interdependence of its (now two) core businesses.

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Stop&Shop supermarkets in the U.S. Northeast, and Giant Foods in the mid-Atlantic, are both owned by Amsterdam-based Ahold. They keep their names but share a new symbol (a fruit boat?) and visual system. The gigantic advantage will come from a shared line of store brands, halving the SKUs while doubling their volume.

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This Argentine company makes gas appliances (heaters, stoves), and now has a brandmark that expresses quality and professional competence (in place of mere cleverness).

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Two not-for-profit health plan providers in the New York region, combining in a new for-profit publicly traded company -- and a nice new badge. More to come. (It's not that they won't answer the phone, they actually deny they have a corporate phone number.)

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It's actually the library of the nation, brilliantly signaled by this classic modern mark. The C&G testosterone is intact.  We will review more fully.

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This is "Radio Televisión Española," Spain's public broadcasting corporation, nicely rebranded (by the Spanish firm Summa) to express movement and renewal, and to better bond with its units. For more, including an excellent launch clip and a look at the visual system, see the RTVE and Summa announcements. Another appropriate use of gradation, incidentally.

They buy, clean up and develop "brownfield" (severely polluted) properties, to create new communities -- which explains this brown-to-green gradation, and the centering of the symbol. The symbol scales up from thumbprint, to contour map, to globe -- or from personal commitment, to a better world. Clever.

Refreshment, and greening, of 100 'convenience' stores (snacks and groceries) in the New York region. Simply elegant. See the site.

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Cosmetic refreshment of Brazil's largest airline, still struggling with the memory of July 2007, Brazil's worst crash. 
Aerodynamically improved letterforms? but then  defaced by the bird-scrawl.

The logo is the least of this dream assignment... to  design an obscenely beautiful resort experience, starting with the website.  Note the sound branding. And sigh with envy.

In Romania, why not take on Hertz (and Avis and Enterprise) head on? Here's aggressive brand creation by the rising Gabi Toth, with a universal dotted line that connects the entire visual system to its Happy brand mark.

In "the largest hotel revamp ever tried," the product is in renewal -- the branding needed to catch up. Successful solution.   (Jerry Kuyper: "A freeway overpass?" And why not?)

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Well, here it is.  We'll review it in full, but not until client, consultant and designer have had an opportunity to tell their stories and "share details."

Good example of replacing a descriptive but dysfunctional name, "Hazard Communications Systems,"  with a sharp and short one, a clarion call, for this maker of safety signs and labels. CEO Goeffrey Parker said "We wanted to precisely reflect our expanded mission (...) as well as pull HCS out of alphabet soup."

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Clearly the blog star so far of '07, and others have written far more thoughtfully than I. I won't 'Review' it (event brand, not institutional) but for those who asked, my first impression:  like the graffiti that inspired it,  it's pure attitude, designed to intrude and degrade. ('london' and the rings, incidentally, themselves seem intrusive and unresolved... graffiti within graffiti.)  Agreed, it has energy, and the visual system (including font, palette and forms) could well be better than the mark.  Yet Brand Olympics feels at risk.

The world's leading electrical supplies distribution company, named Rexel, acquired a similar business named "GE Supply," chose to retain its brand independence, but could no longer use "GE." Landor coined this rather elegant "Ge"-preserving solution, and brightly wired it.

A significant freshening for this regional supermarket brand, #4 in the UK (after acquiring and converting the Safeway chain). Lightening it, opening it up, letting it breathe directly supports the current brand promise "Fresh for you every day."

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A sweet name for this Romanian satellite TV service, a sub-brand of Romtelecom. The brandmark design is unusual in that wordmark and symbol work independently, not as a lockup, and in that the symbol is also a wordmark (having fun with letterforms!).

companion symbol:
     
       

Under a new Director, Peter Dougherty, the Princeton University Press sought a more compelling brand, "a contemporary yet classic logo that symbolizes our commitment to publishing books that will stand the test of time," and got it from Ivan and Tom, who replaced its irrelevant Ionic capital with this P.U.P. monogram.  Go Tiger.

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Sandy Weill merged Citi with Travelers in 1998, then spun out Travelers (sans umbrella) in 2002 , which St. Paul acquired in 2004 to become St. Paul Travelers, who began to phase out St. Paul in 2006, and repossessed the umbrella in 2007. Got it?

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This new airline combines SN Brussel (formerly Sabena) with Virgin Express. The original thirteen runway lights (a nice idea) were subsequently changed to 14, for good luck.

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This is retail, not corporate (Saks Inc. is unchanged as yet) yet is well worth noting, not so much for the renewed 1973 mark as for the system, inspired (per Michael) by 1970s collages by Yale design teacher Norman Ives.

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           1997                 1973          

    

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"Refreshment" is the story for this Virginia-based packaging and paperboard company. There's no fundamental change of equity... but a clear modernization of personality, with the functional benefit of a more legible typeface. (Chesapeake is hard enough to spell as it is.)
              

Launched September, 2006
Design: Porkka & Kuutsa (Helsinki)

Designed for the Asia-Europe Business Forum, on the occasion of a forum in Helsinki, then adopted as the permanent AEBF logo. The Western letters evoke Asian characters, carved in a 'chop' signature mark.

Small U.S. company with a global new product, and a company name not available overseas. They've got one now, presented with confident simplicity.

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This change signals the creation of a new parent "Group" level, more diverse and one step further removed from the Film heritage. (Not so removed, however, as to change the name.) Landor's 1980 FUJI is now just a red chip.

1992 logo:

1980 logo:
              

Financial services... simpler, fresh and friendly. Mixed cases are in fashion.

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This is not a new MasterCard brand logo -- it is a new corporate identity, for the "principal operating subsidiary" of MasterCard Inc. previously named MasterCard International.  It has been widely critiqued as if it were the new brand mark. I will review it more fully when I have talked with its planners and designers.  

The logo for the 2006 World Cup  so embarrassed the German design community that 11 firms jointly posted alternatives. By far the best was #9,
by Klaus Hesse and Christoph  Zielke, using a series of  'splotch' pictograms . 

From music to baseball (the cap), lots of food, an aquarium, and a science museum, this place-mark evokes the fun of Baltimore's marvelous Inner Harbor.  (Designers may recall Unilever.)

Destination branding... taking Yukon Territory from 'part of old Canada' to its own place, with a more modern and exhilarating personality.

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Sprint was a long-distance and mobile provider, now merged with Nextel to form the pin-drop Sprint (see review). But it also had local phone businesses. They're spinning out as Embarq.

The former brand:

This event brand mark has proven so distinctive, functional and appealing that it must be noted and properly credited.

Launched:  February 13, 2006
Design:  TBD

"National" has changed its logo-name to NAB in hopes that NAB will become the everyday communicative name, a role for which "The National" was poorly suited in Australia as well as overseas.  From Melbourne, James Mansfield notes that "to nab is to steal."

We just saw this 2001 rebranding of a Finland-based leader in engineered fiber and  fabrics, and love its freshness.

Here's a nice appropriation of a nearly universal health symbol to help update one of Romania's largest pharmaceuticals, still state owned. The red cross, of course, is also a plus sign. Here, "a plus" not only means high performance; it also says "we're more than antibiotics."   see applications pdf

Hei translates as a friendly greeting, "Hi" with a little "Hey!" (according to correspondent Bogdana Butnar).  It's the new brand for the restaurant/shop at Rompetrol petrol stations, a brand we reviewed in 2003. The tag, "Your energy for a good day," is a build on Rompetrol's "Energy for life."

It's designed to be 'fresh and organic,' to suggest you're no longer at a gas station. (But by differing so sharply from the Rompetrol design, does it dilute the brand and clutter the site?)

Posted: July, 2005
Design:  Internal?

After stumbling with a couple of strained, abortive stabs at other kinds of spots (reviewed here in 2003 and 2002), Gateway quietly returned to a paler version of the box it had abandoned in 2002, the box that had surely helped build the brand.

Posted: May 16, 2005 (Launched c. Sept., 2004)
Design:  McGarry Bowen, NYC (also see InBev)

Not long ago Chase was a global banking power; now it's a local retail brand. Fittingly, its classic powermark (by Tom Geismar, 1960) has been quietly tweaked, the symbol now tucking into the wordmark for retail comfort. (JP Morgan Chase spokespeople treat this as a non-event, and won't discuss it.)

Launched: May 6, 2005
Designer: Gabi Toth

From Romania, Gabi Toth designed this motorsport brandmark for a UK-based Web seller of high-performance motorcycle and auto parts. Bull's-eye! It's fresh, dynamic and memorable.  Disclosure: Gabi, of course, is this site's designer.