Opinion by Paul Vickers Posted BY Brand New

Bonjour Mon’op

Established in 1932, Monoprix is an mid/upper-market department store and convenience store chain in France with a turnover in excess of 3.3 billion euros through 400 stores — many of them Monoprix proper but there are also smaller specialty stores called Monop’, Monop’ Beauty, Monop’ Daily, and Monop’ Station. An institution, Monoprix has traded under the “M” in a red lozenge symbol and a classic serifed uppercase typestyle for over 80 years. A new identity by British design agency Lewis Moberly was launched earlier this month. A comprehensive PDF covers all the changes, from the logo to the store to the uniforms and more.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Paris Saint-Germain FC

About: (Est. 1986) “Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, also known simply as Paris Saint-Germain and familiarly as Paris SG or PSG, is a professional association football club based in Paris, France. The club was founded on 12 August 1970, thanks to the merger of Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain. PSG has been playing in the Ligue 1 since 1974, the current championship record, and is one of the most prestigious outfits in French football having won two League titles, eight French Cups, three League Cups and two Trophées des Champions.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Design by: Dragon Rouge

Ed.’s Notes: Meh (expressed with a French accent).

Relevant links: Press release. Dragon Rouge news with video

Select quote: “The city of light, which is an undisputed icon throughout the world, represents unparalleled leverage to propel Paris Saint-Germain up among the greatest global sporting brands. The new logo thus has the name ‘Paris’ clearly brought to the fore, with the Eiffel Tower at the heart of the logo. The base of the logo has the name ‘Saint Germain’ which continues to be associated with the brand, along with the fleur de lys emblem. The logo has a greater synthesis of ideas and a more immediate impact, and is now ideally placed to capture the imagination of football and sports fans around the world.”

Thanks to Plamen Jordanov for first tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

HOP!

About: (Est. 2013) “HOP stems from the alliance between 3 regional airline companies (Airlinair, Brit Air and Regional) within the Air France group. Thanks to its powerful network combined with the efficiency of its over 3,000-employee staff, the company is THE new transport solution for inter-regional flights, in France and Europe.”

Design by: Brandimage.

Ed.’s Notes: Between Joe on the main side and this, the French are stealing all our words. Nice, simple logo. Tail fin is kind of crazy and hard to read. Bigger view of the logo and livery sample below (or after the jump).

Relevant links: HOP press release. HOP press images (more liveries and ads). HOP media kit (PDF).

Select quote (from media kit): “The name “HOP!” evokes rapidity and the ease with which travellers can get from point A to B. Synonymous with agility, HOP! illustrates its capacity to bounce back and adapt to customers’ needs. The simple typography and red colouring featured in the HOP! logo illustrates the Company’s flexibility in a creative and playful manner. Positioned alongside a slanted exclamation mark, symbolizing an aircraft’s take-off, HOP! illustrates an ambition for reactivity and mobility.”

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Opinion by Paul Vickers Posted BY Brand New

Go Joe

Launched at the close of 2012 by telecommunications company SFR, Joe Mobile is the latest in a growing family of second generation mobile providers in France. Joe’s offer is unique enabling you to customize your subscription to match your changing needs in text messaging, call time, and internet data capacity. The new brand and video by Paris-based Leg Agency is all about accessibility, flexibility and fun.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 28

Today — all the way from Brazil and France and from UCllc’s own immense Texas backyard — we have a couple of hand-drawn projects tempered by some additional vector-y range of logos.

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A B-Side BY Armin

France Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie

Established in 1599, the France Chambres de Commerce et d’Industrie (Chamber of Commerce and Industry) represents and defends the interests of 1.8 million businesses with French and European public authorities with hundreds of local branches. This month they introduced a new logo (a CCI acronym) and standard naming. Press release here (in French). A couple of application images here. Funny video of the new logo below (or after the jump).

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A B-Side BY Armin

LOSC Lille

Founded in 1944, LOSC Lille Métropole is a soccer team that plays in the Ligue 1 of French soccer. They have won the championship three times, most recently in the 2010-11 season. A new logo designed by the Paris office of Dragon Rouge was introduced last month, updating their Great Dane/German Mastiff mascot. More info here (in French). Brandtastic video of the new logo below (or after the jump).

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A B-Side BY Armin

FIA-NET

FIA-NET provides e-commerce solutions for websites in France and its logo is an assurance that a shopping transaction is secure. A new identity has been created by Lyon- and Paris-based Graphéine. A lengthy post (in French) explaining the redesign here. The new brand architecture can be seen below (or after the jump).

The B-Side BY cole

Vétérinaire de la Côte Fleurie

Clinique Vétérinaire de la Côte Fleurie, France’s largest veterinary clinic specializing in equine care, has recently had an identity makeover courtesy of Deux Point Duex. Some very nice images here.

Opinion BY Armin

Smile, you are on the Yellow Pages

PagesJaunes (Yellow Pages) is, as you may have guessed, the Yellow Pages business directory in France. Owned by PagesJaunes Groupe, one of the largest advertising placement and managing companies in the world representing over 770,000 advertisers, PagesJaunes boasts 1 million printed directories across the country, 78 million hits per month on its website, and 4 million downloads of its mobile application. So: Big. Earlier this month PagesJaunes introduced a new identity designed by Publicis Royalties. Press release for our French readers here.

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Opinion BY Rietje Gieskes

Aster-isk Identitus

Aster, one of the oldest shoe brands in France, has been delivering high quality children’s footwear since 1913. Their shoes feature a unique die-cut of an Aster (Diplopappus) flower, a shape recently upgraded to brand icon status. The redesign, led by Bayaderes, includes a refined color palette and a playful script.

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Opinion BY Clinton Duncan

Eurostar Sculpts New Logo

Launched in 1994 Eurostar was, until recently a tri-nation collaboration between Britain, Belgium and France, aimed at moving people quickly on trains, often at speeds up to 300 kilometers per hour, and in a tunnel 120 meters under the surface of the freezing cold English channel. Yep, we’re using metrics for this review people. With a re-structuring of corporate management, and consolidation to one entity based in London, Eurostar sought to rebrand and engaged the services of SomeOne. You can see a video summary of the brand at SomeOne’s project page here.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Hatier

Established in 1880, Hatier is a publishing company specializing in school textbooks. They are part of publishing giant Hachette. The new logo, designed by Brandimage, “projects the brand into the future by reaffirming its values of accessibility, dynamism and innovation.”

Thanks to Shawn Schrader for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

Walibi Rocks

First opened to the public in 1975 in Wavre, Belgium (near Brussels) by Eddy Meeùs, Walibi is a family of amusement parks with locations in the original Wavrens, two in France, one in Holland, and a water park counterpary in Belgium as well, called Aqualibi. The name comes from a combination of three towns: Wavre, Limal, and Bièrges — the kangaroo character reportedly came after Meeùs’ son noticed that a wallaby looked like a kangaroo. The parks were purchased by Six Flags in 1998, then sold to British investment company Palamon Capital Partners in 2004, then to Compagnie des Alpes in 2006, who own a wide range of amusement parks across Europe. Earlier this year, Walibi unveiled a complete new look and Walibi-themed universe in collaboration with multiple specialists in animation, marketing, merchandising, and more. The identity was designed by FigTree in Paris. The site NewsParcs has the complete story in detail.

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Opinion BY Rietje Gieskes

Retuled

The TUL, Transport Urbain Lavallois, is a network of buses based in the Laval community in France. The network consists of 54 buses that travel 21,000,000 kilometers, (that’s 13,048,795 miles for you metric-phobes) every year, and in the process transports an average of 7 million passengers. Their new colorful identity designed by Royalties Agency launched earlier this year.

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Opinion BY Armin

Bretagne’s Stripes

Bretagne (Brittany in English) is a region in the nortwhest of France. While I have never been to Bretagne, the region holds a special place in my heart as it is the fictional home to Asterix’s village which resided right on the coast of a peninsula sticking out at the northwest of the northwest of France. But Asterix doesn’t pay the region’s bills and it doesn’t attract tourists or businesses, so the Agence économique de Bretagne has just launched a new identity to represent the region and has launched two separate sites with slightly different moods and information, one for tourism and one for businesses. The identity was designed by Lyon-based Communiquez (who were here last week for their design of La Manche — in case you are wondering, they didn’t submit work to be featured, they just happened to be the design firm of two separate identities that caught my attention).

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Opinion BY Armin

Rave at La Manche

La Manche is a Department of France located in Normandy, at the northern end of the country, perhaps best known for being home to the preternaturally picturesque Mont Saint-Michel, accessible from the Cotentin peninsula through a natural bridge that is covered and uncovered as the tide raises and lowers. The Conseil général de La Manche is rebranding La Manche — and to a certain degree also the larger region of Normandy — as not just an Old World Charm kind of place but a forward looking destination with a new identity designed by Lyon-based Communiquez. A PDF in French with the explained system can be found here — our French readers might prefer it over my butchered interpretations.

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Opinion BY Armin

Technically, This is Very Colorful

If you like your movies and television shows in color, you owe such modern-day pleasures to Technicolor, the company that created the eponymous color film processes in the early 1920s and gave movies like The Wizard of Oz the ability to show a yellow brick road, where before there would have only been a gray one. Long associated with Hollywood, the name/term/idea of Technicolor went from having the kind of service-specific equity that Google now has in search engines or Kleenex in facial tissues; this past decade however, Technicolor seemed to have gone astray. It was bought by French tech company Thomson in 2001 and the Technicolor name became a simple subsidiary. In a 180-degree-turn-of-events, this past January, Thomson announced that it would change its corporate name to Technicolor and give it back the consumer-facing reign. Today, Technicolor is a machine of technological proportions, providing services in animation, digital effects, production, post-production, and more. Both Thomson and Technicolor have adopted a new logo, designed by Technicolor’s Marketing Branding team with advertising agency Gyro:HSR.

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Opinion BY Armin

The French get their B-Ball On

Established in 1932, the Fédération Française de Basket-Ball (FFBB for short, and French Basketball Federation in English) is the governing body of basketball in France, overseeing more than 4,000 clubs across the country as well as managing the French national team. With a 16-year-old logo in use, the FFBB unveiled a new identity last week designed by Lille- and Paris-based agency Graphèmes who, as I understand, beat out another six agencies through a competition, although there are no details about what said competition entailed — hopefully it was a free throw competition that didn’t involve free logos.

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INTL. REVIEW BY PAUL VICKERS POSTED BY Brand New

Moulin Rouge does the Typographic Cancan

As French as the Eiffel Tower or Champagne, the Moulin Rouge Cabaret is an integral part of the history and culture of France and has been on the sightseeing trail of visitors since it was founded in 1889, in the Pigalle red light district, close to Montmartre, Paris. Birthplace of the famous Cancan dance, the red Windmill on its roof is a landmark on the city’s horizon and an iconic symbol of cabaret and nightlife worldwide. Long associated with the avant-garde and leading artists, with some of its early posters designed by none other than Toulouse-Lautrec, the Moulin Rouge has a long design heritage but was in dire need of an overhaul, having drifted into a popular, mass market experience with a cheap and tacky product image. The 120th anniversary of the Moulin Rouge is the occasion to roll out a new brand identity that pays homage to the legend and communicates the magic with a resolutely contemporary brand. Four agencies competed in the in the design pitch, proposing over 40 different proposals, according to this interview with the eventual winners, Paris-based agency John Brightman.

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