Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 41

This Friday is all about food and chefs and restaurants. So come on in and please wait to be seated.

Continue reading this entry

Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 12

After doing Friday Likes for 12 weeks now, I am amazed at how much international work I end up choosing. It’s not even on purpose. Today we have kids toys from Russia, on-air type stylings from Italy via Argentina, and spicy delights from Mexico.

Continue reading this entry

A B-Side BY Armin

Salerno

Salerno is a sea-side city in Campania, Italy. This month the City of Salerno introduced a new “consumer” logo to complement the city’s official seal. The new logo has been designed by Massimo Vignelli. Story and pictures of Vignelli’s presentation here. One image that explains the concept behind the logo below (or after the jump).

Continue reading this entry

Guest Editorial by Joshua Levi Posted BY Brand New

United Colors. Now with more Benetton.

The year is 1985. In America, Reagan is in the White House, Michaal Jackson and Lionel Richie are writing “We Are The World”, and Cliff Huxtable is dazzling us with his wardrobe of knit sweaters. In Italy, the country’s largest clothing maker, The Benetton Group, coins the phrase “United Colors of Benetton”. The phrase is blasted into pop culture, not only referencing the company’s colorful clothing but also the idea that cultural diversity is good. Today, Benetton colorfully dresses customers in 120 countries and is in the process of rolling out an evolved graphic identity system designed by Pentagram partners Daniel Weil and Michael Bierut with the internal Benetton team.

Continue reading this entry

A B-Side BY Armin

City of Rome

The result of a competition, a new logo — or at least that’s what I think it is — for the city of Rome, designed by Turin company Mediapeople. Some other submissions here.

Thanks to Andrea Desiato for the tip.

INTL. REVIEW BY Simon Wennberg POSTED BY Brand New

Who Let the Butterflies Out?

European broadcasters tend to place much focus on the brand of their respective parent corporation, which usually acts as an umbrella brand for all their outlets. This is very different from the American broadcasters where every network seems to be its own operation with loose branding ties within corporations (think MTV, VH1, etc. within Viacom). One weird aspect of the European model is that every once in a while the corporation makes a change in its identity which is then implemented on all its services. This means a sudden burst of rebrands of several television channels that either happen at once or over the course of a limited time-period. One recent example of this is Rai — short for Radiotelevisione Italiana, a state-owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance — which suddenly decided to give all its 13 channels new looks on May 18.

Continue reading this entry