The XXIII Olympic Winter Games in 2018 will be hosted by Pyeongchang, South Korea after successfully winning the bid against Munich, Germany and Annecy, France and it will follow the 2014 Winter Games played in Sochi, Russia. In early May, the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee introduced the emblem for the Games, designed by Ha Jong-joo (no link available). All of the work is presented in a video included in this post (with some screen captures of the highlights for quick browsing) and a decent press release is available here.

The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic emblem is an abstract motif inspired by Hangul, the alphabet of the phonetic Korean language.

It is composed of the first consonants of the name of the host city, PyeongChang.

The '?'(P) is the first consonant of the first syllable, Pyeong.

It also symbolises the open square where the celebration of athletes and winter sports will take place.

The '?'(Ch) is the first consonant of the second syllable, Chang. It symbolises the natural environment of snow and ice, and the stellar achievements of the athletes - the stars of the Games.

The colours reflect the Olympic Flag, and they also represent the five traditional colours of Korea.

Taken together, the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic emblem embodies the harmonious synergy between the sky, land and people. Set in a majestic setting of snow and ice, athletes and people from around the world come together in an open square in PyeongChang to celebrate the finest winter sport athletes and the greatest winter sport festival.
— Emblem explanation

Emblem explanation. The first minute is abysmal, but then it gets remarkably good in showing the system.

Supporting visual elements are constructed out of joining lines.

What appear to be the individual sports' icons.

Prototypes, above and below, of stuff. And more stuff.

The first impression is that this is a very unlikely Olympic logo, either for Winter or Summer Games: way too simple and pared down. Almost like a placeholder. And it's not really that attractive, neither the two elements on their own, nor the two elements together, and the sans serif is abysmally generic. BUT when you look at the video and see the way these same lines transform into clouds and trees and fireworks and the sports icons there is a very interesting visual language that starts to develop, unlike anything previously done in any Olympics. It's playful and energetic. A friendlier, simpler iteration of the original London Olympics visual proposal. At this point everything seems to be prototypes and suggestions with a few years left to finesse and develop but there is clearly potential for a remarkable Look of the Games here. The PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee just needs to hire someone to do better videos.

Thanks to Maarten Janssen for the first tip.

Established in 1968, Sterling Cooper & Partners (SC&P) is one of the leading advertising agencies in New York, NY and is the result of a merger between Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (est. 1963) and previous competitor Cutler Gleason and Chaough. SC&P's current list of clients includes Chevrolet, Mohawk Airlines, Manischevitz Wines, and Ocean Spray and Sunkist (which is a conflict of interests). When first merged, the agency attempted to adopt Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Cutler Gleason and Chaough as a name and SCDPPCG as an acronym but soon after settled on the name Sterling Cooper & Partners honoring the original partners, Bertram Cooper and Roger Sterling Sr. (current Roger Sterling's daddy), who had founded the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency in 1923. Yesterday, the agency introduced its new logo through a press release issued for immediate release. No design credit was given.

Press release.

Logo detail.

The previous logo worked nicely in that it was four letters neatly arranged in a tight grid of rounded-corner squares but in order to make all the letters fill out the squares the typography has been stretched, making the "S" and "C" particularly aggravating. I will blame it on the nascent technology of phototypesetting that allows far more play with the fonts than ever before. But the agency should know better than letting technology drive their aesthetics. Five years makes a big difference and the SCDP logo — name change notwithstanding — was starting to feel out of date in this drastically changing decade. The new logo drops the seriousness of its predecessor with a custom monogram of the abstracted initials and an ornamental ampersand. The monogram letters are nicely executed with the same proportions and counter-spacing used in the taller letters ("S" and "P") as in the shorter one ("C"). The supporting wordmark comes in a remarkably nice bulbed sans serif that hints back to the original sans serif but clearly points forward. Overall, I don't know if this logo communicates all the ideals expressed by the partners in the press release but it is definitely a major improvement that establishes SC&P as an edgier and more contemporary agency.

Thanks to Chris Rooney for the first tip.

Established in 1908, the Royal Canadian Mint is the for-profit corporation responsible for the minting and distribution of Canada's circulation and collector coins. At the beginning of June — with all of its press release attention going to a special collector coin designed by comedian Martin Short — it announced its new logo through a tweet. Design credit not given.

Logo detail.

Facebook cover photo.

Unfortunately there is no information or any further images — media requests were not answered (surprise, surprise) — but I felt there was enough here for an interesting discussion. The old logo was a little odd; clearly a combination of "M" for mint and the ubiquitous maple leaf of Canadian logos, but it was unclear whether the leaf was sitting on and squashing the "M" or if it was supposed to be the top half of the "M" in which case that's just plain weird. But it had that mid-century corporate logo look to it that has some kind of charm. The new logo is split into two, which has caused confusion for some viewers. One is a maple leaf made out of coins and the other is the English and French name of the organization set in two circles. That, my friends, is a lot of circles. The two things couldn't feel any more different from each other and don't really benefit from being next to each other. The coin leaf seems too playful while the text (although it's trying to be playful) looks stiff. On its own, the coin leaf borders on interesting and bland; it's a refreshing take on the leaf with a relevant graphic device (the coins) but it feels too bubbly. And the typography on a circle is just painful to watch. It's difficult enough setting one line of text in a circle so the ambition to typeset two lines in two languages, while admirable, should have been abandoned early on in the design process or contracted out to a professional to devote at least 40 man hours to refining it. Overall, an interesting change in the sense that it's an unexpected result from this client but the execution could have been better.

Thanks to Jason Bouwman for the first tip.

Scheduled to open in 2014, The Battle of Bannockburn project is a partnership between the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and Historic Scotland to create a new visitor centre and landscaping at the site of the original battle of 1314 that, as described by NTS, is "one of the defining moments in Scottish history, [where] King Robert the Bruce routed the English forces of King Edward II to win a much-longed-for freedom for the Scots." The identity for the project was designed by The Beautiful Meme with consultation from Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag; the logo was first released in July of 2012 and it just caught a second wind after winning the Best Identity of the Year at the UK's Design Week Awards.

Like individual units in an army, each character can be dispatched separately to do battle for the brand through marketing, merchandising and fundraising. The ability to break apart the logo also allows for an identity that can be hacked. We anticipate some sectors of our target audience (particularly students) creating new versions and letters, using images within the letterforms, employing single letters to begin sentences similar to illuminated manuscripts, or even making 3D or animated versions.
— Brand Book (not available online)

All captions below are from the brand book.

The B illustrates the tight packs in which the Scots would group together, known as Schiltrons. The men would brandish pikes ready to spear oncoming troops.

The A shows the tip of a regular infantry arrow that could be fired by archers to pierce flesh up to 100 yards away.

This N represents a cavalry horse in its charging position. In total 2700 battle hardened horses were used at Bannockburn.

This N represents a common medieval chainmail pattern. The chainmail worn could weigh up to three stone.

The O represents the head of a morning star or mace. This brutal weapon was often used by soldiers on horse back.

The C represents the sabaton armour that was generally worn by higher ranking infantry. It would protect feet, shoulders and arms from hacking blows.

The K represents the head of an axe or turn-pike. Robert the Bruce used a battle axe to attack and kill Sir Henry de Bohun - the axe sliced through his helmet and split his skull in two.

This B represents the rampant lion that was emblazend on English and Scottish shields and flags. Only after the battle did the lion become associated with the Scottish.

The U represents the style of helmet used in the battle. Although they limited vision they would protect from stray arrows and light weaponary strikes.

The R represents a plan of war. The ingenious tactics used by the Scots to defeat the English were crucial to the battle's outcome. What was lacked in numbers was made up for in strategic positioning on higher ground.

The N represents the Declaration of Abroath. As a result of the battle, this important document was created on 6th April 1320 and declares Scotland an independent country.

How to say this in a professional, critical, constructive manner? This logo is fucking awesome. To elaborate, I guess, this is a concept that could have been executed so horribly and so wrong that it would make a Game of Thrones betrayal scene look like Nashville. The weight and balance of each character and the details within it are all perfectly in tune and there is enough detail to understand the different things each letter is trying to communicate even without the explanations above. Except the first "N" — the horse — which I had not picked up on and then just blew my mind. The logo is spiky and dangerous and it immediately communicates medieval warfare in a way that is contemporary and exciting. So, yeah, I stand by my initial assessment: fucking awesome.

Because my knowledge of Eindhoven is minimal, here is a slightly edited Wikipedia description: "Eindhoven is a municipality and a city located in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, originally at the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams. The city had 218,559 inhabitants (November 2012) and 261,082 if adjacent Veldhoven is included, making it the fifth-largest city of the Netherlands and the largest of North Brabant." A new identity for the city has been launched by Eindhoven365, an organization that combines the operations of CityDynamiek and Eindhoven VVV (the regional tourist bureau) to establish a "clear city marketing strategy for the purpose of creating a strong brand policy and brand perception for the city of Eindhoven". The identity and strategy have been designed by the "Virtual Design Agency", a collaboration of various local individuals and firms. For additional information and process images, a comprehensive Tumblr has been going on for a few months.

The new logo symbolizes the energy of the city of Eindhoven. Peter Kentie, City Eindhoven365 Marketer, explains: "That energy originated in the 19th century with the activity around the Dommel and later successes include Philips and DAF. Even today Eindhoven crack of the many technological and creative developments. "According Kentie this is the energy which Eindhoven in many areas a strategic future ahead. With the aim of an even stronger economy and a pleasant, vibrant city.
— Press release (Google-translated)

Identity introduction. Not sure why the video turns into a rave halfway through.

Grid and coloring possibilities.

Custom font.

I'm not sure what the old logo was. An abstraction of the city map? A squished-fly version of the Dropbox logo? Who knows. But clearly, it sucked. The new logo is much clearer — energy! — but still ambiguous enough to leave room for interpretation. The new icon could, of course, be for every single energy company in the world — I would be surprised if it isn't already — but it follows (as I now know thanks to this Port of Amsterdam logo) the same construction as the XXX logo of Amsterdam, establishing a kind of Netherlands house style for city logos. It's not the greatest of icons and its flexibility isn't quite as sophisticated but it does its job efficiently. The custom typography has a bit of a dual-mullet effect: from afar it looks like any number of European-ish sans serifs but up close it, literally, has an edge to it, with some rather weird notches and appendages. Overall, it's a lukewarm version, tempered for a city, of what you would expect from Dutch design.

Thanks to Roy Swinkels for the tip.