Opinion BY Armin

Oklahoma City University

About: (Est. 1904) “Oklahoma City University is a coeducational, urban private university located in Oklahoma City, in the Uptown district. The university is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and offers a wide variety of degrees in the liberal arts, fine arts, sciences and business. The only Oklahoma institution listed in the top tier of the regional, master’s-level university category by U.S. News and World Report, Oklahoma City University is also listed in Forbes’ “Best Christian Colleges” & “100 Best College Buys.”“

Design by: Pentagram (DJ Stout, Austin).

Ed.’s Notes: It’s definitely an improvement but it’s hard to associate that kind of star drawing with higher education than Hollywood/Entertainment industry. Type is super pretty though. A few application image below (or after the jump) and more at the link.

Relevant links: Pentagram case study.

Select quote: “Before Stout and Delgado redesigned it, OCU’s primary logo featured a silhouetted likeness of the university’s iconic Gold Star Tower, a 286-foot red brick tower built in 1953 to honor Methodists who died in World War II. The tower, an Oklahoma City landmark located prominently in the center of campus, is topped off with a 200-pound star positioned at the end of a long pole like a star on a Christmas tree. ‘OCU’s sports teams are called The Stars after the Gold Star Tower, and many of the university’s celebrity alumni, like the Tony Award-winning Kristin Chenoweth, are singers and dancers and ‘stars’ of the stage,’ says Stout. ‘So it only seemed natural to turn their static star into a dancing star, with just a hint of the long pole it’s attached to at the top of that building.’”

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In Brief BY Armin

In Brief: New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual

Inside a locker beneath old gym clothes at the New York office of Pentagram, someone found a copy of a first edition New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual designed by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda of Unimark International in 1970. Design nerds and Pentagram employees Niko Skourtis, Jesse Reed, and Hamish Smyth have put together a minisite with photographs of all 182 pages of the document with extra juicy zoom-in capabilities. Breathe, relax, enjoy.

Opinion BY Armin

Ablixa: After You See This Logo, You’ll Need It

Entering the market this week is the newly Food-and-Drug-Administration-approved Alipazone — brand name: Ablixa — an antidepressant drug of the “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class” that has been produced to treat major depression, and is prescribed off-label for other conditions. The logo, packaging, and advertising have been designed by Pentagram partner Emily Oberman.

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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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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 27

One might deduce that I have a thing for patterned and textural identities. One might be right. Work spanning bread, shoes and apparel, and design and architecture all get a sophisticated-over-the-top treatment in this week’s Likes.

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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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A B-Side BY Armin

Republic Records

About: Republic Records, formerly known as Universal Republic Records, is a music label for top-selling artists like Nicki Minaj, Drake, Gotye, and the Avett Brothers.

Design by: Pentagram (Paula Scher)

Ed.’s Notes: Plenty of applications at the link below.

Relevant links: Pentagram news.

Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 19

Generally, Friday Likes are of smaller scale projects in terms of client size and overall deployment needs, which makes sense as that’s where there is usually more room for out of the ordinary solutions. Today I have three bigger-ish projects that may not be as quirky or design-ey but they still have a lot to like.

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A B-Side BY Armin

FIT Athletics and Recreation

About: FIT Athletics and Recreation, as described by Pentagram: “FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology, is an internationally recognized college known for its exceptional curriculum in art, design, communications, business, and fashion, of course, but not for its sports teams. Over the years, however, FIT has developed a first-rate athletic program. The school fields 13 intercollegiate teams in such sports as volleyball, soccer, tennis, track and field, half-marathon, cross country, swimming and table tennis, plus a dance company.”

Design by: Pentagram partner DJ Stout

Ed.’s Notes: Sample uniform and logo extensions below (or after the jump). The team is known as FIT Tigers, hence the tiger.

Relevant links: Pentagram case study (plenty more images).

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A B-Side BY Armin

Cohen Media Group

Established in 2008, Cohen Media Group (CMG) is a theatrical production and distribution company specializing in independent and foreign language films. Last month CMG introduced a new identity designed by Pentagram partner Paula Scher. Plenty of applications and story here.

Opinion BY Christian Palino

Perot Museum Hoists Brackets

Established in 2006 in Dallas, TX, the Museum of Nature & Science is the sum of The Dallas Museum of Natural History, The Science Place, and the Dallas Children’s Museum that came together that year. In January of 2013, the museum will be relocated to a new building and be renamed as the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. The new identity, inspired by Morphosis Architects’ cube-shaped building, was designed by Pentagram partners DJ Stout and Michael Bierut.

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Opinion BY Armin

Here’s Looking at You, P

Housed in a 1926 Italian Renaissance-style villa built for oilman Waite Phillips in 23 acres of land and gifted to city of Tulsa, OK, in 1938, the Philbrook Museum of Art is home to an expansive collection of everything from Native American to African to Asian to European to contemporary art. In 2013, the Philbrook will open a new location to complement the villa in the historic downtown Brady District, a growing arts area in Tulsa. The new identity, which is inspired by the two locations, has been designed by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut in collaboration with partner Eddie Opara, who designed the website.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 13

Two thirds of today’s Likes have an Austin connection, which I point out only because I need to fill at least two lines of text in my Friday Likes intros. The other third has to do with Chicago. So there.

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Opinion BY Armin

Nuts.fun

Launched in 1999 as NutsOnline and based on a family business dating back to 1929, the newly named Nuts.com is an online retailer of more than 200 varieties and treatments of nuts as well as dried fruit, snacks, chocolate, and coffee and tea. Based in New Jersey, Nuts.com has a 60,000-square-foot space and 80 employees. After living at www.nutsonline.com for thirteen years, the company was finally able to purchase www.nuts.com — details here — adopt it as its name, and design a new identity and packaging around it, which was designed by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, quite literally this time: the logo and type are based on his own hand-drawn alphabet, digitized by Jeremy Mickel. The identity is complemented with nut character illustrations by Christoph Niemann.

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Opinion BY Armin

New University of the Arts London Logo, or Why I Hate Helvetica

Established in 1986 and originally named the London Institute, University of the Arts London (UAL), as it was renamed in 2004, is a network of six colleges — Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion, and Wimbledon College of Art — devoted to art, design, fashion, and media offering courses at all levels from foundation and undergraduate to postgraduate and research. Spread throughout London, the six campuses serve over 20,000 students through approximately 1,200 staff. Last week, Creative Review was first to show a new identity for UAL designed by Pentagram partner Domenic Lippa, that led to a zesty range of mostly negative reader comments. Stating that UAL did not like its identity, specifically, its visual performance, Pentagram instituted an all-Helvetica approach. Kill me now.

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A B-side BY Armin

Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra

Founded in 1933, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra is the national orchestra of Luxembourg. The new identity has been designed by Pentagram partner Justus Oehler. More images and explanation here and a bigger view of the logo below (or after the jump).

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Opinion BY Armin

Mohawk Connects the Dots

Established in 1931, Mohawk, a fourth-generation family-owned business, is the largest privately owned manufacturer of fine papers and envelopes for commercial and digital printing in North America. Mohawk employs over 580 people and operates three paper machines in two mills in upstate New York and two converting facilities in New York and Ohio, with warehouses around the U.S.. Popular paper brands under Mohawk’s portfolio include Superfine, Navajo, Via, Beckett, and Strathmore. Last week Mohawk announced a major reinvention of their business to “thrive in today’s digital world” and today marks the launch of a snazzy new website designed by Hydrant and developed by Avatar, as well as the introduction of a new identity designed by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut and associate partner Joe Marianek.

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Guest Opinion by Bill Dawson BY Brand New

Grand Central Time

New York’s Grand Central Terminal train station will celebrate its centennial in 2013. In honor of that milestone, Midtown TDR Ventures worked with Pentagram to create a new logo and identity system for the landmark location. Pentagram partner Michael Bierut oversaw the project with designer Joe Marienek. The logo includes an interpretation of the four-sided Tiffany timepiece that sits atop the information kiosk at the center of the Main Concourse. The clock is set at 7:13 PM (19:13) to represent the year that the station became officially known as Grand Central Terminal.

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A B-Side BY Armin

University of Southern California

Established in 1880, the University of Southern California counts with 37,000 enrolled students. A new identity has been designed by Pentagram partner DJ Stout in Austin, TX. Press release here. A quick overview of the identity guidelines can be found here [PDF].

Thanks to Alberto G. Manuel for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

Maudie’s Tex-Mex

Established in the early 1950s and turned Tex-Mex in 1992, Maudie’s is one of the most popular restaurants in Austin, TX with six locations throughout. After designing the look of its newest location as a standalone application, Maudie’s decided to expand the look to all locations. Designed by local Pentagram partner DJ Stout. Full identity here.