Opinion BY Armin

Scribd gets Designd

Perhaps one of the most underrated platforms in the realm of web innovation, connection and the freeing of information is the three-year-old Scribd. While Facebook and Twitter get all the social media recognition and Google Books all the information hoarding props, Scribd is a vibrant repository — 10 million documents published so far — of user-generated content that makes books, magazine articles, white papers, presentations, and more, available in a painless format that is easy for users to share and for readers to access. I became enamored with Scribd when we were working on Graphic Design, Referenced as we were able to find plenty of articles and essays that otherwise would have been a pain in the behind to acquire. The service isn’t perfect, of course, as it’s prone to illegal uploads but in its short three years, it has grown tremendously — the time for a redesign seems appropriate.

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DATE: Mar.18.2010CATEGORY: Publishing 22 COMMENTS

Opinion BY Armin

Egypt, Now Less Arid

One of the destinations I would like to one day visit is Egypt and its surroundings to, at the very least, confirm my suspicions that there is more to Egypt than pyramids and pharaohs. (I know there is more, I’m being sarcastic). A new campaign for the Egyptian Tourist Authority developed by the Cairo office of JWT aims to establish Egypt as a place where there is more than really big tombs. And accompanying this campaign is a new logo.

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DATE: Mar.17.2010CATEGORY: Destinations 76 COMMENTS

INTL. REVIEW BY KATRINA POSTED BY Brand New

One Element too Many?

[Ed.’s Note: This redesign is from early 2009, so I realize I am breaking one of our rules, but I thought this was a very intriguing solution that deserves discussion. — Armin]

Aarhus University (AU), established in 1928, is Denmark’s second largest educational institution and ranked in the top 100 universities worldwide. AU is a lively, modern university, which collaborates with the business community, cultural centres and other universities throughout the world. At the end of 2008, AU underwent a visual identity change in response to a consolidation of the Danish higher education system and to strengthen the University’s international competitiveness, shifting the visual identifier of the University from the traditional seal to a more modern logo as well as updating the design of all paper and web materials and creating a new typographic element.

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DATE: Mar.16.2010CATEGORY: Education 54 COMMENTS

Opinion BY Sam Becker

Circle Gets the Square

It’s been fifty years since Chermayeff & Geismar unleashed their modern Chase logo on the stodgy, unsuspecting world of bank branding. They were unique to suggest an institution like Chase use an austere, geometric and non-literal symbol as their mark. To help celebrate this momentous anniversary Chermayeff is launching their newest creation, the redesign of the Bank of Taipei brand—half a century later—with another four-sided trademark, this time with softer shapes and a softer shade of blue.

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DATE: Mar.15.2010CATEGORY: Finance 52 COMMENTS

Opinion BY Armin

Brother, can you Spare a Square?

The process of asking for a loan from a bank sucks. Simple as that. Short of a cavity search, they want to know everything about you and then they will hit you with an interest rate higher than your cholesterol level. Add to that the economic slump of the last two years and getting a loan was harder than spotting a yeti. These circumstances might help explain the burgeoning practice of peer-to-peer lending and at the forefront is Lending Club, which has funded $93,634,075 in loans and $6,487,621 in paid interest to investors since its inception in 2007. The premise is simple, Lending Club brings “together investors and creditworthy borrowers eliminating the high-cost and complexity of traditional banks. This allows people to invest in and borrow from each other in a way that is financially sound and rewarding for both parties. Lending Club offers borrowers better rates and investors higher returns.” A short three years after launch and ready to shed its start-up label, Lending Club has adopted a new logo created in collaboration with Mule.

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DATE: Mar.12.2010CATEGORY: Finance 62 COMMENTS

Opinion BY Armin

McCain, Lesson Learned

If there is anyone that learned the branding lesson imparted by the Obama ’08 Campaign, it was John McCain. During the Presidential race there was simply nothing the McCain identity could do to help his chances, especially not Optima, not even at its boldest. Not long after the loss, McCain announced in November of 2008 that he would be running for re-election to his Senate seat in 2010 for the state of Arizona. Earlier this year, McCain presented a new identity for this particular campaign, created by Phoenix-based OVO. What a difference one lost Presidential race makes.

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DATE: Mar.11.2010CATEGORY: Politics 89 COMMENTS

Opinion BY Armin

Ubuntu’s Circle of Friends Gets Smaller

According to our Google Analytics, 58% of your are using a Macintosh Operating System, 39% are on Windows, 1.5% are logged as using the iPhone OS, and, finally, as the subject of today’s post, 0.65% of you are reading this from a Linux Operating System. (Wow, 0.01% use Playstation 3!). The Linux platform, in contrast to that of Apple’s and Microsoft’s, is free and open source and has major street cred among hardcore developers and people that simply want a tinkerable alternative to the Mac vs. PC battle. Also, unlike its commercial brethren, various operating systems can operate in a Linux environment, and one of the most popular is Ubuntu — launched in 2004 by Canonical Ltd. and embraced by a growing community of users that contribute to its growth and evolution. Under a new brand vision of “Light” Ubuntu is preparing to change its identity this coming April.

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DATE: Mar.10.2010CATEGORY: Technology 57 COMMENTS

In Brief BY Armin

Oscarama for Logorama

In dozens of years of watching the Oscars I had never cared about the outcome of the Best Animated Short Film, but this year it was different as in the running was a 16-minute film done almost entirely out of, literally, thousands of logos. Created by the French collective H5, and winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, Logorama is not only a clever idea that brings to life some of the most ubiquitous marks of our time, but one that manages to exploit the meaning and conceptions we have of those marks and the brands behind them — whether it’s the villain of the movie, Ronald McDonald, spouting “Loser” after the Enron logo drops from the sky, or “White Trash” when the Kmart logo follows it. Logorama is relentless in its inclusion of corporate, consumer and cultural icons and they become ever so vivid through a crude animation style that complements rather well the prickly language and chaotic plot, which is “Spectacular car chases, an intense hostage crisis, wild animals rampaging through the city and even more…”. Images and a trailer for the short film have been floating around the web for the last few months and the full video has been spotted on and off. The official, legal video can be seen in some countries through iTunes for $1.99, and until further announcement it’s also available at Vimeo (embedded below). [Boy, I haven’t even posted this and the video is already gone; below are some screen captures and instead of buying a cup of coffee today, spend it on this movie, it’s worth it]. There are plenty of memorable moments, so don’t even dare to blink.

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DATE: Mar.09.2010CATEGORY: In Brief 38 COMMENTS

GUEST REVIEW BY Kosal Sen POSTED BY Brand New

This Just in: History is Coming Back… Sort of

Before it closed down for renovations in 2009, to reopen in 2011, the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia suffered from lack of exposure. A quick look at the original website reveals all you need to know about the old brand. The brutish colors and default appearance reveal a small organization without much concern for engaging the audience. Compared to the other kid-friendly museums in Philadelphia like the Franklin Institute (whose original home was actually the Atwater Kent building), the Atwater Kent Museum is about as exciting as a textbook. Having visited the museum once in my elementary school class trips, I remember it as an old, austere space that contained just bunch of artifacts. Change was overdue.

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DATE: Mar.08.2010CATEGORY: Culture 60 COMMENTS

INTL. REVIEW BY Paul Vickers POSTED BY Brand New

En Garde, Bad Logos

Les Mousquetaires (The Musketeers), is a leading French super and hypermarket chain founded in 1969, employing 130,000 people across Europe in over 4,000 stores, with a turnover of €35 million (US$47 million) in 2008. The name is, of course, a direct reference to Alexandre Dumas’ 19th century novel about the adventures and escapades of a group of sword fighting, good living, soldier friends in the reign of Louis 13th of France. The Musketeers are synonymous of friendship, adventures and the good life in France and are part of popular culture, an association this supermarket has happily adopted.

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DATE: Mar.05.2010CATEGORY: Retailers 63 COMMENTS