Opinion BY Armin

Billbold

First published in 1894, Billboard is a weekly magazine devoted to the music industry and issuing weekly charts of the top songs, including the popular and industry-leading Hot 100 of the top singles, which then spawned an endless inventory of CDs. This week, Billboard is introducing a redesigned magazine featuring a new logo, both by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut. The new identity will be introduced unto the website on January 26 when it relaunches.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Brooklyn Public Library

About: (Est. 1896) “As an independent system, separate from the New York City and Queens libraries, Brooklyn Public Library serves the borough’s 2.5 million residents, offering thousands of public programs, millions of books and use of more than 1,100 free Internet-accessible computers.”

Design by: Eight and a Half.

Ed.’s Notes: I’m not usually the correct-English-police but there is something odd about the library using the slang-ish abbreviation of the borough. It’s far more readable at smaller sizes, that’s for sure.

Relevant links: BPL blog post with historical logos.

Select quote: “Gone is the sad little black box that for so long meekly defined our presence in the digital realm. There’s something invigorating about the facelift that comes with rebranding — it seems to signify a fresh start, a new direction.”

Thanks to Ricardo Cordoba for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

OzHarvest Gets a New Set of Wheels

Established in 2004, OzHarvest is an Australian nonprofit organization that rescues food mainly from restaurants, food wholesalers, and retailers to distribute to charities supporting the vulnerable in Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide, and Brisbane delivering 441,500 meals per month across the country with a fleet of 15 vans. In December OzHarvest introduced a new identity created in a pro-bono collaboration between Frost* and Droga5.

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Opinion BY Armin

I See Yoo

Just launched by SKY New Zealand and Television New Zealand, IGLOO is a “digital set top box that plugs into your telly and broadcasts through your UHF aerial” giving users in New Zealand access to free-to-air channels and, its main hook, a pre-paid range of premium channels without long-term contracts, going on a month-to-month basis with only the channels you want and not bloated packages with channels no one watches. The name, brand, and roll-out have been created by Interbrand Australia.

Update: I have changed the title of the post (originally “Not your Eskimos’ Igloo” (as a play on “Not your parents’ this or that)) as I was not aware that Eskimo is considered a pejorative term. Apologies to anyone who thought of it as offensive; it wasn’t my intention.

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Opinion BY Armin

Gradient Watchers

Established in 1963, Weight Watchers is the world’s leading provider of weight management services through a points system that assigns a number to each different food and caps your intake at a certain amount of points — so, say, you can eat 10 points a day, you can spend them on steamed chicken, broccoli, and wheat rice, or you could just eat a fucking doughnut. It’s more complex than that (and you can read a great article on Wired about how their point system has evolved). There are approximately 1.3 million members around the world who attend a whopping 45,000 combined meetings each week through a network of company-owned and franchise operations. Additionally, Weight Watchers produces its own branded food products, consumed at a rate of $5 billion last year. Earlier this month, Weight Watchers launched a new program called Weight Watchers 360° and with it came a new identity designed by Pentagram partner Paula Scher.

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Opinion BY Armin

Follow-up: Rebel

I originally posted about Rebel in the B-Side on Monday, which I thought was an interesting redesign but there wasn’t much info about it. At the end of the day I had more info. To recap who Rebel is: Established in 1985 with a single store in Bankstown, NSW, Rebel — retailer of sporting and leisure equipment, apparel and footwear — now has 90 stores across Australia with over 4,500 employees and by the end of 2017 they aim to have over 180 stores open. The new identity started appearing in November and now is in full swing. It was designed by Sydney-based Hulsbosch and the retail store and interiors by neighboring firm McCartney Design.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Rebel

About: (Est. 2010) “Rebel offers a wide range of the latest release, quality, branded sporting and leisure goods. With an extensive list of product categories for the casual and serious fitness enthusiast, Rebel’s range includes fitness equipment, sports equipment, apparel and associated accessories for both the casual enthusiast and serious competitor. [It] has grown to become an extensive network of more than 90 stores located in every state and territory in Australia with the exception of the Northern Territory & Tasmania”

Design by: N/A.

Ed.’s Notes: See what they did there? The second “e” is flipped, going against the grain. You know, like a rebel.

Relevant links: N/A.

Thanks to Jarrad Langdon for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

Kentucky Derby 139

About: “Churchill Downs, the world’s most legendary racetrack, has conducted Thoroughbred racing and presented America’s greatest race, the Kentucky Derby, continuously since 1875.” 2013 marks the 139th edition of the Kentucky Derby.

Design by: SME.

Ed.’s Notes: This is the fifth year in a row SME designs the logo.

Relevant links: Press Release (with thorough design explanation).

Thanks to Stu Taylor for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

Optimum has the Last Word

Owned by Cablevision, Optimum offers cable, Internet, and voice service throughout the New York and New Jersey area, with another area of service throughout Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. Optimum has had a case of logo-itis, with far too many logos (see one of the first images below) mostly due because they separated their offerings as Optimum Online, Optimum Interactive, Optimum Voice, plus the main Optimum logo. Last week Optimum introduced a new logo designed by New York, NY-based COLLINS:, and new advertising by Mother NY.

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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.