Opinion BY Armin

Maha Music Festival Puts a Bird on it

First staged in 2009, the Maha Music Festival is a volunteer-run event in Omaha, Nebraska, featuring local, regional, and national indie and alternative rock artists that last attracted over 4,000 attendees — 2013 will be headlined by The Flaming Lips. Starting in 2012 the festival adopted a new identity by local firm Oxide Design. I realize this breaks my own criteria of the timeliness of work to be posted on Brand New and for all Omahans who consider this old news we deeply apologize (not too deeply) but, for some reason, today I struggled to find something interesting to post and this project had been piled on with other news since February and, well, it’s interesting.

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Opinion BY Armin

Country Inns & Suites

About: “Country Inns & Suites By Carlson is the upper mid-scale hotel brand within the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group portfolio. Country Inns & Suites hotels are designed for both business and leisure travelers and provide complimentary amenities like hot breakfast and high-speed Internet. Country Inns & Suites hotels are mainly independently owned and operated and franchised under licensing agreements with the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. The brand currently operates 480 hotels throughout the world and has over 30 properties contracted and under development.” (Source Wikipedia)

Design by: N/A

Ed.’s Notes: The new logo is pretty decent but in contrast to the old one it’s almost a masterpiece.

Relevant links: USA Today Article. Press Release.

Select quote: “We are looking to the future and are making thoughtful changes that will allow us to grow our brand,” said Gordon McKinnon, executive vice president and chief branding officer for Carlson. “It’s a natural next step to evolve into a product that appeals to a younger generation. But we will be fiercely maintaining our service culture and amenities that have built our strong, loyal customer base.”

Thanks to Joe Mielzarek for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

iNature Skincare

About: “iNature Skincare is an Australian brand with skincare products made of natural ingredients, free from parabens, artificial colours and fragrances. The packaging range consists of three products with different levels of hydration — Calendula Hydrate, Calendula Nourish and Calendula Repair.”

Design by: Bedow.

Ed.’s Notes: Pretty! A few more images below (or after the jump) including big view of the logo, and then some more at the link below.

Relevant links: Bedow case study.

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A B-Side BY Armin

BlackJet

About: (Est. 2013) Co-founded by Uber founder Garrett Camp and with high-profile investors including Ashton Kutcher, Will Smith and Jay-Z, BlackJet launched in 2013. The service allows a wider market of luxury travelers to book individual seats on private planes instantly, at the touch of an iPhone.

Design by: Moving Brands.

Ed.’s Notes: This looks expensive.

Relevant links: Moving Brands case study.

Select quote: “The visual identity Moving Brands developed for BlackJet is bold, confident and elegant. The ‘B’ is abstracted, drawing directly from the design direction’s concept of the fast, frictionless journey. It takes the subtle shape of wings, both in the positive space created by the curves of the ‘B’ and the negative space, which reveals the sleek nose and wings of a jet. A moody, sexy, monochromatic color palette and contrasting, geometric font further advance the personality of the brand and differentiate its identity from its competitors.”

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A B-Side BY Armin

Buy.com

About: (Buy.com Est. 1997 / Rakuten Est. 1997) “Buy.com joined the Rakuten family in 2010, making the joint businesses combined into one of the world’s largest online retail marketplaces. We offer consumers more than 90 million products from 38,500 merchants around the globe. Buy.com becoming Rakuten.com Shopping is the next step of that relationship as the Rakuten Group increasingly unifies its brand internationally. This transition will open up the Rakuten.com Shopping (formerly Buy.com) marketplace to customers globally, as well as introducing merchants and retailers from around the world to its North American customer base. Both its merchants and its consumers will benefit from this open, global market. We are excited at the possibilities to come, and we hope you continue to join us in our global growth.”

Design by: N/A.

Ed.’s Notes: This isn’t so much a logo before/after but a brand before/after and the effects of corporate ownership. Buy.com didn’t have much of a logo before and Rakuten doesn’t have much of a logo either, just an “R” inside a circle that has been passed off to Buy.com. The real problem here is going from the über simple “Buy.com” to the utterly unmemorable and confusing “Rakuten.com Shopping”. If that weren’t enough, there is a video, below (or after the jump) that makes all the employees shown look as humiliated as the old Buy.com logo probably feels.

Relevant links: Buy.com is now Rakuten.com Shopping.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Allina Health

About: “Allina Health is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of illness and enhancing the greater health of individuals, families and communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. A not-for-profit health care system, Allina Health cares for patients from beginning to end-of-life through its 90+ clinics, 11 hospitals, 15 pharmacies, specialty medical services, including hospice care, oxygen and home medical equipment and emergency medical transportation.”

Design by: Campbell Ewald.

Ed.’s Notes: After preparing this post I realized the identity is from March of last year. So, yeah, this is old. Still, let’s pretend it happened today. Bigger view of the logo and ambulance livery below (or after the jump).

Relevant links: Campbell Ewald case study.

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Opinion BY Armin

Futurebrand’s Future Looks Fuzzy

Established in 1999, Futurebrand is a global brand consultancy — “built on an inimitable focus on innovation and the future” for added pizzaz in their own description — with 26 offices in 18 countries and is part of McCann Worldgroup. Most recently Futurebrand redesigned the American Airlines and Fiji Airways identities and were in charge of deploying the Look of the Games at the London Olympics. They first gained attention in 2003 when they redesigned the UPS logo. This week they introduced a new identity for themselves along with new positioning, “We are the creative future company.”

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Opinion BY Armin

Harvard University Press Ditches Veritas

Established in 1913, Harvard University Press is a “leading publisher of convergent works in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences” and, as its name implies, it is the imprint of Harvard University. Facing challenges with making the transition to apps, digital reading devices, and web browsers using its previous identity — an honorable and traditional shield — Harvard University Press has introduced a new logo designed by New York, NY-based Chermayeff & Geismar.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Quadrigam

About: (Est. 2010, formerly Impure) “Quadigram is the solution for any individual or organization that works intensively with information. Quadrigram enables you to prototype and share ideas with your data rapidly as well as produce compelling solutions in the forms of interactive visualizations, animations or dashboards.”

Design by: Brava Buero.

Ed.’s Notes: The logo is some kind of chart-turned-book thing. Is nice. Logo animation and detail of book thing below (or after the jump).

Relevant links: Brava Buero case study. Quadrigam launch blog post.

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A B-Side BY Armin

TDS

About: (Est. 1989, Dublin) “TDS (Time Data Security) Ltd are leading specialists in the areas of integrated Security Systems and Smart Card deployments.”

Design by: RichardsDee.

Ed.’s Notes: Really liking the icon for this; Big Brother-ish but cool. Sample application image below (or after the jump) and a few more at the links below.

Relevant links: RichardsDee case study. TDS press release (PDF).

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Opinion BY Armin

From Barracks with Love

Established in 1992 in the small (pop. 71,000 and counting) town of Brandenburg an der Havel in Germany, Fachhochschule Brandenburg (wherein Fachhochschule translates to University of Applied Sciences) offers degree courses to approximately 3,000 students in engineering, business administration and economics as well as information technology and media. The university is housed in an 1880s building that originally served as barracks for the Prussian army. Last month Fachhochschule Brandenburg introduced a new identity designed by Thomas Manss & Company.

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Opinion BY Armin

Mindtree Wraps Around the Globe

Established in 1999, Mindtree is a global information technology solutions company with 11,000 employees across 24 offices around the world providing services like infrastructure management, application development, business technology consulting, and more. Last week Mindtree introduced a new identity designed by the Los Angeles, CA, office of Siegel+Gale.

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Opinion BY Armin

Myspace Remains Immortal

Like Jason Voorhees, Myspace is back from the near-dead. Or, well, it’s going to be back. Soon. You just need to give them your e-mail at a new landing site to get an invite to join. After a brave, Hail Mary-like push in October of 2010 to reboot the social networking site with a new identity and functionality under the auspices of News Corp, Myspace crashed badly and was picked up by Specific Media, an interactive media company that “enables advertisers to connect with consumers in meaningful, impactful and relevant ways.” They were joined by Justin Timberlake, who was reported to “take an ownership stake and play a major role in developing the creative direction and strategy for [Myspace] moving forward.” The new creative direction and strategy are here. Yesterday, Timberlake introduced a preview video to his 13,000,000-plus Twitter followers.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Duke Energy

About: Duke Energy is “the largest electric power holding company in the United States with more than $100 billion in total assets. Its regulated utility operations serve approximately 7.1 million electric customers located in six states in the Southeast and Midwest.”

Design by: In-house.

Ed.’s Notes: Bigger view of the logo below (or after the jump) as if a bigger view explains what it is. The new logo was spurred by the merger with Progress Energy and is set to roll out in April 2013.

Relevant links: Press Release.

Quote:”The new logo depicts forward motion, representing energy for the future,” said Ginny Mackin, Duke Energy’s chief communications officer. “It draws on elements from the legacy companies’ logos: Progress Energy’s ‘star’ and the ‘swoosh’ in Duke Energy’s ‘D.’”

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A B-Side BY Armin

SketchUp

Released in 2000, SketchUp is an easy-to-use 3D modeling tool available for free (and as a pro-version) that became quite popular under the ownership of Google starting in 2006. This past April, SketchUp was purchased by Trimble and now with a new release a new logo has been introduced that sheds its Google past. More details and insight into the logo here.

Thanks to Phillip McKeown for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

Senac’s Paper Airplane Goes Down in Flames

Established in 1946, Senac — originally SENAC, short for Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Comercial; National Commercial Training Service in English — is a vocational trade education institution in Brazil where it has presence all over the country with over 580 locations. It employs over 23,000 faculty members that teach more than 54,000 combined classes to 1,150,000 students a year. In other words: it’s big. Earlier this month, Senac introduced a new logo, designed by Rio de Janeiro-based Packaging Brands, and a new advertising campaign by Ogilvy.

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Opinion BY Armin

From Fiji with Love

Established in 1951, Air Pacific is the national carrier airline of Fiji with a small but busy fleet of six airplanes covering over 400 flights a week to almost 15 cities in 10 countries around the world. Earlier this year, Air Pacific announced that it would be changing its name to Fiji Airways, the name under which it was originally founded and shortly known as, and this past weekend it unveiled its new logo, featuring an icon designed by local Fijian Masi artist Makereta Matemosi. The renamed airline will officially take over in early 2013 while the livery design, and reportedly the design firm involved, will be revealed on October 10, Fiji Day.

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Opinion BY Armin

Red Mild Chili Peppers

First opened in 1975 in Dallas, TX, Chili’s Grill & Bar is a casual dining restaurant chain serving what it calls “a variety of Southwestern-inspired, classic American and international tastes” in over 1,500 locations, the majority in the U.S. but with presence in 32 countries. For those who’ve never been into a Chili’s here are the highlights: big menu with lots of times, mediocre to bad food, watered down beer on tap, bad decoration that doesn’t go the full monty with tchotchkes a la TGI, and that’s about it. As far back as October of 2011, a new logo was slowly introduced by Chili’s — which means that I am painfully behind on this one, but better late than never — and in the last eight months about a hundred of the locations have undergone a major remodel with new exteriors and interiors, designed by San Francisco, CA-based Tesser.

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Opinion BY Armin

Here’s Looking at You, P

Housed in a 1926 Italian Renaissance-style villa built for oilman Waite Phillips in 23 acres of land and gifted to city of Tulsa, OK, in 1938, the Philbrook Museum of Art is home to an expansive collection of everything from Native American to African to Asian to European to contemporary art. In 2013, the Philbrook will open a new location to complement the villa in the historic downtown Brady District, a growing arts area in Tulsa. The new identity, which is inspired by the two locations, has been designed by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut in collaboration with partner Eddie Opara, who designed the website.

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Opinion BY Armin

Mornin’ Sunshine

Established in 1955, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) is a nonprofit donor-supported organization dedicated to the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis, an “inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide).” CFF is one of the leading organizations in innovative research, comprehensive care, and overall funding into the development of new drugs to fight the disease. Last month CFF introduced a new logo, designed by Alexandria, VA-based Grafik and shortened its tagline.

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