Opinion BY Armin

Generic Swap

I first learned about Swaptree through a presentation by one of our clients at TEDxSydney on the subject of Collaborative Consumption — itself the subject of her book, What’s Mine is Yours, for which we designed the web site. Although Swaptree has been around since 2004, it wasn’t until recently that the model has taken off and gotten more attention. Its focus is on users signing up, adding a list of books, games, music, or videos they either want to acquire or want to get rid of. Swapping. The system then matches you with equivalent swaps and through the magic of trusting strangers you put your book, video, game, or CD in an envelope, spend $2, and three days later you have a new item you want, not one that sits on a shelf. Last week I did my first swap, changing Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, which my 3-year-old deemed scary, for Toy Story, which we have yet to watch. Last week, Swaptree announced it would change its name and domain to the all encompassing Swap.com.

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Guest Opinion by Mark Holtmann Posted BY Brand New

Two Triangles are Better than One

The Dutch public broadcasting organization VPRO (an acronym that translates into “Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcasting Company”) started its life in 1926 as a religious radio broadcaster. Over the years it became more liberal and less religious until, in the sixties, it planted itself firmly in the avant-garde by being the first television broadcaster showing a nude woman on national television. Since then the VPRO never left its nonconformist role, with slight stubbornness purposefully choosing those programs, topics and formats that the other broadcasting companies passed over. Although not well known outside of the Netherlands, the VPRO is the real deal. It continuously airs intelligent, cultural and quirky programs, the stuff that makes TV interesting.

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Announcement BY Armin

Quipsologies adds One Column

As part of the re-launch of Quipsologies — the hard-working UnderConsideration blog that chronicles the most curious, creative, and notable projects, stories, and events of the graphic design industry — we have made some changes to the Brand New structure. (If you are reading this in your RSS reader join us in the real web, won’t you?). I emphasize structure because the content is not changing. I know how passionate you (and I) all are about what gets posted, and we have strived to keep the Feng shui of Brand New as pleasing as possible.

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Opinion BY Clinton Duncan

Orange Tart

QR National is a soon to be listed public company that owns and operates Australia’s largest rail freight network. In a country that is the world’s largest exporter of coal, it’s not surprising that QR National is also the world’s largest transporter of the dirty rocks. In a big brown land, with big brown trains, from the state of the big pineapple, big mango, big bottle of rum and the big boofhead, a big new company is about to be created — with a smart new identity courtesy of Cornwall Design, Melbourne.

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Opinion BY Armin

Discovery Kids Grows Up

Launched in 1996, Discovery Kids is another popular channel of the Discovery Communications empire with an emphasis on — stating the obvious here — programming for kids focusing on science and nature shows. Beyond its programming, Discovery Kids has also grown into a successful product brand, selling everything from little plastic dinosaurs to night goggles. This merchandising extension is important to note as on October of this year, Discovery Kids, the channel, will be replaced by The Hub, a collaboration between Discovery Communications and toy maker Hasbro. We covered that logo in February. So the new identity, created by Irvine, California-based Mattson Creative, is now a consumer product brand and not just a channel identifier.

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Opinion BY Armin

Surf’s Down

Founded in 1984 by a small group of surfers in Malibu, California, Surfrider Foundation (SF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to “the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education.” Through more than sixty local chapters, SF counts with over 50,000 members across the United States. Earlier this month, SF introduced a new logo designed by Los Angeles-based 72andSunny.

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Opinion BY Armin

Forward-Looking Phoenix

Founded in 1976 to serve working adults seeking higher education who couldn’t attend a traditional university environment, the University of Phoenix (UOPX) is currently the largest for-profit university with more than 420,000 undergraduate and 78,000 graduate students. Most students take their courses and complete their curriculum online but can also attend classes at one of the 200 nondescript “campuses” (in quotes, because they are mostly beige buildings that don’t trigger notions of idyllic campuses) around the U.S. — in fact, they state that there is a campus “within 10 miles of 87 million Americans.” UOPX has long been under scrutiny because of the perceived lower level of education and standards that other universities strive for, and it also receives Federal funding for loans despite being a very profitable enterprise. And some frown upon their athletics program which consists not of teams playing in divisions but of buying the naming rights to the University of Phoenix Stadium where the NFL Cardinals play; they were also a big sponsor in the recent LeBron James spectacle where he announced his move to South Beach. But all this is just baggage lugging around a recent redesign of identity the university has gone through internally.

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Opinion BY Armin

Type is in the Details

An aspect of identity design that goes unexplored to a certain degree is that for religious organizations, but as everyone becomes more brand aware these spaces and communities must communicate and attract with as much urgency as any major consumer brand or corporation. In this specific case being reviewed today, we are also veering a little off from the typical redesign in that there is no big logo change, rather it’s an identity overhaul through typography for International House of Prayer (IHOP – KC) in Kansas City. Established in 1999, IHOP – KC is a young adult Christian organization that combines 24/7 prayers for justice with 24/7 works of justice, with many outreach programs for different causes. Ten years later the organization has grown to include more than 50 different departments, and with growth and little control comes graphic havoc.

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Opinion BY Armin

National Geometry of Australia

Established in 1967 by the Australian Government, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in the capital city of Canberra, houses over 100,000 works across four points of national interest: Australian art, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander art, Asian art and International art. In 2006 NGA announced plans for a comprehensive expansion of their building after receiving a $92.9 million funding from the government that will help it accommodate the now 140,000 works in the collection. Slated for completion this winter, the NGA has taken the opportunity to introduce a new logo as well, designed by Naked Communications.

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Opinion BY Armin

Arts United Unites

Originally named the Fine Arts Foundation when it began in 1955, Arts United, as it was renamed twenty years ago, is one of the oldest non-profit art funds in the United States, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its mission is “to provide support to arts and cultural organizations and to unite and coordinate arts efforts in northeast Indiana.” Arts United also manages the Arts United Center, built in 1973 by Louis Kahn and serves as the main performing space for the Civic Theatre, the Youtheatre, Fort Wayne Ballet, Fort Wayne Dance Collective and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. This month, Arts United introduced a new logo designed by local Fort Wayne agency One Lucky Guitar.

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