Opinion BY Armin

New Theatre on Rotation

Established in 1932, the New Theatre is a proudly independent theater in Sydney, Australia. “We’re not slick, we’re not refined and we don’t conform,” is only one of many statements it makes, “We believe in artistic and social expression, not just escapism. When we take the stage, we’re for real.” Or “We’re driven by passion, not money.” You get the point. This past January, New Theatre introduced a new visual and verbal identity created by the Sydney office of Interbrand.

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Opinion BY Armin

A New HP: So Close, Yet So Far Away

Established in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, HP (shorthand for Hewlett Packard, just for the record) is, as it describes itself a “technology company” selling consumer products for printing (shipping more than 1 million printers a week!), personal computing (48 million units a year), and software, as well as offering IT infrastructure and other related services. Ranked 11 in the Fortune 500, HP counts with 324,600 employees across 170 countries and generated $127.2 billion in revenue in 2011. Clearly, HP is big but, also, it lacks that je ne sais quoi that transforms a massive company into a revered brand like, oh, I don’t know, Apple. With the help of Moving Brands, HP hopes to transform its perception and introduce a whole new way of portraying the company. Maybe.

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Opinion BY Armin

It’s Okay to be the King

Currently the closest — and by closest I mean pretty not very close but it will do — thing the NBA has to a Michael Jordan-level global superstar is LeBron James of the Miami Heat, formerly of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He can dunk, he can block, he can pass, he can piss off an entire audience through megalomaniac ESPN specials, and, perhaps he can win a championship. But not yet. In the meantime, the only crowning he’ll have is by his own “King James” nickname, which serves as the basis for the logo of his Nike line of shoes and apparel. Designed by Nike Brand Design, the logo officially debuted this past October although it was leaked as far back as November 2010.

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Opinion BY Armin

StumbleUpon Stumbles on Hidden Shape

Launched in 2001, StumbleUpon is a discovery site where registered users — 20 million of them at last count — can share, rate, explore, and “stumble” upon web pages of their specific interests. StumbleUpon was the de facto site for random-ish web browsing before sites like Digg and Reddit surfaced as competition in the mid aughts and while all these three shared a crappy design aesthetic and functionality they co-existed well but with the relatively more finessed approach of Facebook and Twitter, StumbleUpon now feels like a relic of the original dot-com era. Today, StumbleUpon is relaunching its service with new functionality and services, designed by Huge. Along with this comes a new logo.

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Opinion BY Armin

A Not Conservative Conservatoire

Formally established in 1968 but with roots as far back as 1847, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) is Scotland’s “national centre of professional vocational training in performance arts.” RCS offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs — in music, Scottish music, acting, musical theatre, modern ballet, and technical production & arts among others — to about 800 students and currently has 873 people on staff, giving it the “highest staff-student ratio of UK Conservatoires, offering intensive one to one tuition.” This past September RCS announced its name change and introduced a new identity designed by Glasgow-based Stand.

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A B-Side BY Armin

DVF

Established in 1972, DVF is the fashion company of designer Diane von Furstenberg, known for her fabulous patterns and prints. DVF recently revised their logo and identity, designed by New York-based Diego Marini. More samples of the identity here and a detail view of the logo below (or after the jump).

A B-Side BY Armin

Women at NBCU

Launched in 2008, Women at NBCU is an “ad sales, marketing and research initiative [that] creates custom solutions for advertisers to connect with female consumers via NBCUniversal’s wide portfolio.” Logo designed by Wolff Olins. A few more images at Wolff Olins designer Mike Abbink’s website.

Thanks to Marc Nijborg for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

Celadon

Established in 1994, Celadon provides “an innovative, eclectic, fresh take on home furnishings” to customers in South Carolina. Local firm J Fletcher Design has redesigned the identity, ridding it of Papyrus. You can see the full identity here.

Opinion BY Clinton Duncan

Giant G, No Little g

Previously Team GWS, now the rather wordy Greater Western Sydney Giants (but thankfully shortened to GWS Giants), are the latest expansion team of the Australian Football League, or AFL. Team GWS was a placeholder name for the initial few years, and the name was chosen after a community competition, and Sydney branding firm Pincipals were tasked with turning the new name into a new brand.

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Opinion BY Armin

Tyra Rocks some Fierce Lettering

One of the most unexpected figures in modern-day business and content creation is ex-supermodel — supermodel emeritus? or once a supermodel always a supermodel? — Tyra Banks, as evidenced primarily through the success of 16 seasons and 20 international editions of America’s Next Top Model and her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, that aired for five years. Both of these shows were produced by her own company, Bankable. To cement her business savvy (and gain some additional attention), Banks has enrolled in the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Owner/President Management Program (OPM) which has her attending (and sleeping at) Harvard for one three-week period for the next three years. Her latest venture, in partnership with Demand Media, is typeF, “a revolutionary fashion and beauty website that listens to what women want and gives them the answers they are looking for, when and where they want it.” Banks rang the bell of at the New York Stock Exchange this past Tuesday and launched typeF.

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Opinion BY Armin

Like Two Ps in a Pod

Whether it’s the close-ups of bland Buitoni packs on Top Chef or the sardonic parade of Apple products on 30 Rock, product placement feels like it’s at an all-time high. It’s mostly our fault too, since we skip ads with our DVRs and look away while annoying 15-second ads play before a web broadcast, product placement gets to us at the moment we are paying attention, during the actual program. Common practice in U.S. shows this was forbidden in the UK until this past Friday when Ofcom, the “Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries” announced it would be taking responsibility for the rules governing product placement in the UK and allowing it in original programming. Along with the announcement they have released a logo that is to be used for three seconds at the beginning and end of a show as well as after any commercial break.

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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

Columbus, Indiana Convention and Visitors Bureau

There aren’t many reasons to care about the redesign of the Columbus, Indiana Convention and Visitors Bureau logo. But want a good one? The old logo was designed by Paul Rand — dig the letterhead.

Thanks to B. Emmit Jones for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

Verisign

If you are currently surfing the internet it might be in part thanks to Verisign, a “provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.” A good-sounding fact: “Verisign manages two of the world’s 13 Internet root servers, a.root-servers.net and j.root-servers.net, considered national IT assets by the U.S. Federal government.” Symantec recently purchased Verisign and adopted the former’s logo as their own.

Thanks to Steven Lacoursiere for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

Eniro

Eniro is “the Nordic region’s largest search company. Both consumers and companies can use Eniro’s services to easily locate where to buy services and products — regardless of whether the channel is internet, catalog or mobile.”

Thanks to Anders Landström for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

McKinney

Logo and identity system by Studio MPLS for powerhouse ad agency McKinney. More applications at the link above.

Opinion BY Armin

Comedy Central: Still Funny?

Launched in 1991, Comedy Central began quite modestly if not downright unpopularly with only a bevy of sitcom reruns and an abundance of stand-up comedy sessions. Almost 20 years later, Comedy Central is one of the most popular channels thanks to, of course, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and South Park — not to mention the always hilarious Roasts and to a certain degree the antics of Tosh.0. Yesterday, Comedy Central unveiled a drastically different new identity, designed by New York-based thelab that will begin playing on air in January 2011.

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Opinion BY Armin

D-emocrats

With the upcoming election to the United States Senate this November it’s every political party for itself as 37 seats are up for grabs. We won’t go into nomination strategies on Brand New, but we can certainly get into the logo that the Democratic National Committee has nominated as its best candidate to carry the party and its cadre of politicos gunning for the seats in the upcoming primaries and beyond. The logo was unveiled yesterday and was designed by New York-based SS+K.

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Opinion BY Armin

Gazelephants in the Wild

Launched earlier this month with a somewhat subdued splash, the RightNetwork is a new media company dedicated to the views of, well, The Right. The Republicans. The GOP. Presenting a “right-minded perspective that includes an entire spectrum of opinion from thoughtful and reserved to bold and brash” through original programming. It features Kelsey Grammer, aka Frasier Crane, as its spokesperson. Its content is available online and theoretically on TV, available on demand at relatively unpopular cable services like Verizon FiOS TV, Sky Angel, and Blue Ridge. And competing against other TV animals like NBC’s peacock, the RightNetwork is introducing the — wait for it — Gazelephant. “We wondered what would happen,” blogged Frasier, “if we combined the power of the largest land mammal on earth [and mascot of the Republican Party] with the agile, fast as all get-out, Gazelle.” Wonder no more readers.

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Opinion BY Armin

Hit the Road MAT

Established in 1972 the Metro Area Transit, or MAT as more colloquially known, is the local bus system for the city of Omaha, operated by the Omaha Transit Authority, a governmental subdivision of the State of Nebraska. With a look that looked as if it hadn’t been updated since 1972, MAT underwent not just a redesign but a renaming too, as Metro, with the help of local firm Oxide Design.

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