Opinion BY Armin

Kering Goes Owl Out with New Branding

Established in 1963 as Pinault — later Pinault-Printemps, later Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, most recently PPR, and completely renamed as Kering this past March — is one of the most comprehensive parent company of luxury brands, including Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Brioni, Christopher Kane, and Stella McCartney among others as well as sports brand Puma. Family-owned since its inception, Kering is present in more than 120 countries, it employs 33,000 people and generates 9.7 billion euros in revenue. The new name was created internally with help from Havas Lifestyle, who are also credited with designing the logo and identity while Dragon Rouge is credited with brand strategy and the signature.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 36

Some really thoughtful ideas today along with strong executions from Paris via London, Australia, and South Africa.

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Opinion BY Sam Becker

Vitamin V

Founded in 1977 in New York City, The Vitamin Shoppe has grown to be one of the largest purveyors of nutritional supplements in North America with over 500 stores and 20,000 unique SKUs. According to their website, The Vitamin Shoppe is the "first and only choice of people seeking to fulfill their health and wellness needs."

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Opinion BY Armin

SSG: Health- and Design-Conscious

Established this year in the Chungdam neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea, SSG Food Market is a health-conscious food establishment that sells domestic and seasonal fresh food, traditional native food and eco-friendly products, health products with no chemical additives, and more. SSG’s identity, packaging, and environment have been designed by New York, NY-based Mucca.

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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

IZIBUILD

IZI is a Portuguese home improvement store owned by PreBuild. In 2011 EuroRSCG rebranded IZI, now known as IZIBUILD. Prebuild’s Margarida Calvinho explains (as translated by Google) “the new graphic identity reinforces the strength, experience and credibility that characterized the group Prebuilt.”

Thanks to Rodolfo Foitinho for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

Infinite Mountain

First opened in 1987 in New Zealand, Kathmandu is a specialty retailer and manufacturer of clothing and equipment for the adventuresome, outdoorsy audience. Kathmandu has 116 stores across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. Their sales are 95% of Kathmandu-branded products, but they also carry popular brands like Keen, Teva, and Salomon. In September Kathmandu introduced a new logo, identity, and packaging system designed by Strategy Design & Advertising.

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Opinion BY Armin

Ben There, Done That

Founded in 1963 in Brighton, UK by Ben Sherman (neé Arthur Benjamin Sugarman), Ben Sherman is one of the most iconic clothing brands in both the UK and the world. Best known for its defining button-down shirts, Ben Sherman has maintained cult status for a remarkable five decades, transcending whatever the fashion of the moment is. Since July (or perhaps June) the Ben Sherman website has been showing a simple sans serif logo but acknowledging that the site was an interim version to a brand new site, so it seemed as if the logo was not a definite change. But this past September, with the opening of a new concept store in their flagship location on Carnaby Street, it remains no doubt that this is the new look for Ben Sherman. Designed in-house, the logo and identity have been brought to life in a retail environment by Brinkworth.

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The B-Side BY cole

Schlecker

Established in 1975, Schlecker, the Germany based drugstore and one of the largest European retailers, has undergone a recent identity update. The new logo features a bit friendlier type treatment (based on Frutiger, but tweaked for individualization) in an attempt to appear more inviting and approachable. The official press release can be found here but may require Google Translate for the non-German speakers.

Thanks to Ralitza Dilovska for the tip.

A B-Side BY lauren

Monsoon

Founded in 1973, London-based women’s retailer Monsoon, who hold almost 133 stores across the UK, has recently revamped their identity.

A B-Side BY Armin

Zara

First launched in A Coruña, Galicia in Spain in 1975, Zara is a retailer of chic, semi affordable clothing for men, women, and kids with more than 1,400 stores in over 70 countries. The logo change has been spotted as early as June of 2010. Somebody please put the “A R” together a bit.

Thanks to Michael Tyznik for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

X Marks the Shopping Spot

Founded in 1895, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) offers merchandise and services to active duty, guard and reserve members, military retirees and their families of the U.S. Army and Air Force. With more than 3,100 facilities — that include over 180 retail stores (like big Walmarts) as well as more than 1,000 fast food restaurants like Taco Bell and Burger King — in Army and Air Force bases in the U.S. and more than 30 countries, AAFES’s majority of earnings are funneled back to the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR)/Services programs which, in 2009, amounted to more than $261 million. In September of last year AAFES introduced a new logo that reflected a change in name from AAFES to, simply, the Exchange. The identity and update to their retail program was done by Columbus, OH-based Chute Gerdeman.

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Opinion BY Armin

Don’t Mind the Gap, or the Square

Established in 1969 in San Francisco, Gap is one of the most popular American clothing brands — net sales of $3.8 billion in 2009 can attest to it. With 1,140 stores in the U.S. and almost 300 more abroad, Gap pushes simple and unfuzzy clothing at very reasonable prices and of very reasonable quality. Through their advertising they have established a cool, breezy, and sophisticated brand visual language that ties everything together nicely and, until now, their logo was the perfect little bow to keep it all together. Without any fanfare, Gap rolled out a new logo yesterday. When I first saw it I thought it would just be a seasonal change, but now there is little doubt it’s a new logo: the file on their website is called newlogo.png.

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Opinion BY Armin

Eau de Golden Ratio

Originally a small prescription pharmacy that started in 1977 in the city of Curitiba, Paraná in Brazil, O Boticário has evolved into a producer of various beauty products like fragrances, soap, body care and make-up, and now holds the claim of being the largest chain in the world in this sector, with 2,500 stores in Brazil alone, 70 across 15 other world cities, and presence in multiple sales points like department stores. To handle the growth of this consumer-facing brand, a new corporate entity has been created, Grupo Boticário, with an identity designed by the Brazil office of Futurebrand.

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