Opinion BY Armin

A Vortex of Groovy

Located in London’s Islington neighborhood and housed in an 18,000-square-foot Victorian property that was, in 1855, a post office and, later in 1911, a cinema, The Halcyon is a new retail development that will be “highlighting the best of British retail, creativity and artisan dining,” and will include a restaurant (The Thunderbolt), bar (The Sundower), artisan food hall, gallery, and a coffee house. The Halcyon’s identity has been designed by London-based SomeOne.

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Opinion BY Armin

Taking the Comedy out of Comedy

Launched in 1997 in Canada, The Comedy Network is, as its name implies, a channel devoted to all things funny. Its programming consists of a selection of existing programming from other channels including Comedy Central (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Tosh.0), TBS (Conan), and NBC (Up all Night, Whitney). It also sprinkles in some original programming. Yesterday, The Comedy Network introduced a new logo, on-air look, and advertising all designed, from what I can gather, in-house, through the parent company, Bell Media.

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Opinion BY Armin

Moscow Embraces Emoticons

This introduction might be a little choppy because my Russian goes as far as Google Translate will take me. As a personal initiative architect Nicholas Pereslegina and designer Alexander Pershikova have launched their very own brand for the city of Moscow without any government involvement (or maybe even approval). And this is not just some proposal on a Behance page, this is a full-on brand with merchandise and souvenirs already hitting the streets of Moscow. The concept of the new logo is Surprise + Smile = Wow.

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Opinion BY Armin

Animal Stripes

Established in 1899 in Seattle, WA, Woodland Park Zoo — previously the private park of Guy C. Phinney, a wealthy lumber mill owner and real estate developer — currently sits on 92 acres and features more than 1,090 individual animals representing nearly 300 species. The zoo is well known for advancing animal exhibits to be more naturalistic and closer to each animal’s habitats. This month Woodland Park Zoo, with the launch of a new capital campaign that aims to raise $80 million, introduced a new identity and theme — “More Wonder. More Wild.” — created by Phinney Bischoff Design House. I wonder if they got the job because they have the same name as the zoo’s original founder? (Kidding).

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