Opinion BY Armin

Executive Flock

Launched in 1999, the Executive Master of Science in Communications Management program (EMScom for short) is a 20-month, international part-time program for mid-career professionals at the Faculty of Communication Sciences in the Università della Svizzera Italiana in the Italian-speaking, and Italy-bordering city of Lugano, Switzerland. EMScom “prepares professionals in developing new perspectives in key management areas, including management of stakeholder relationships, public relations, reputation management, and corporate identity on a strategic level — all with the ultimate goal of enabling communicators to go beyond simply communication and to contribute to their organization’s corporate strategy.” Considered a leader in its field and wanting to raise their international profile, EMScom introduced a new identity designed by Moving Brands around the narrative of “Change your perspective” which highlights the “transformational process, both personally and professionally, that stakeholders identified as essential to the course.”

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A B-Side BY Armin

Gelderland Broadcasting

About: (Est. 1985, Radio; 1996, TV) “Omroep Gelderland (in English: Gelderland Broadcasting) is a regional public broadcaster for the Dutch province of Gelderland and they have their own radio station and TV channel broadcasting primarily for the province itself.” (Source: Wikipedia).

Design by: N/A.

Ed.’s Notes: Funny video of literally changing the new for old logos below (or after the jump).

Relevant links: New identity page.

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Opinion BY Armin

OzHarvest Gets a New Set of Wheels

Established in 2004, OzHarvest is an Australian nonprofit organization that rescues food mainly from restaurants, food wholesalers, and retailers to distribute to charities supporting the vulnerable in Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide, and Brisbane delivering 441,500 meals per month across the country with a fleet of 15 vans. In December OzHarvest introduced a new identity created in a pro-bono collaboration between Frost* and Droga5.

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Opinion BY Armin

Comcast Takes NBC Peacock Hostage

Established in 1963, Comcast is a global media and technology company and it operates two main businesses. The first, and what most people associate the company with, Comcast Cable — although it’s not called Comcast Cable, but Xfinity — which is the the largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider for residential and business use in the U.S. with a combined 50.8 million customers. Under the Comcast name there is also venture capital firm Comcast Ventures and sports and entertainment company Comcast-Spectacor. The other primary business is NBCUniversal, only one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies that manages the namesake television network and movie production company, as well as specialty channels like USA Network, Syfy, E!, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, and more. In other words, Comcast is huge and influential. Yesterday, without any fanfare or release, Comcast flipped the switch on a fancy new website that features a new corporate logo.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Safe Place

About: (Est. 1983) “Safe Place is a national youth outreach program that educates thousands of young people every year about the dangers of running away or trying to resolve difficult, threatening situations on their own. This easily-replicated initiative involves the whole community to provide safe havens and resources for youth in crisis. Safe Place creates a network of Safe Place locations — schools, fire stations, libraries, grocery and convenience stores, public transit, YMCAs and other appropriate public buildings — that display the yellow and black diamond-shaped Safe Place sign. These locations extend the doors of the youth service agency or emergency shelter throughout the community. Youth can easily access immediate help wherever they are.”

Design by: AMP Agency.

Ed.’s Notes: The original sign had been unfortunately pegged as inappropriate. (An adult grabbing a kid’s breasts for those with innocent minds). Number 3 on this list of “20 Accidentally Naughty Company Logos”.

Provided comment: “Businesses around the country can display the Safe Place sign in their window to tell kids that there is trained staff available to help them out when they have nowhere else to turn. Because there is so much recognition equity in the original sign, I had to work within that shape and those colors. And because their logo doubles as a window sign, and the word ‘national’ in that scenario is irrelevant, they choose to not include the word in the logo, even though it is part of their name.” — Kevin Casey, Associate Creative Director, AMP Agency

Relevant links: Press release.

Opinion BY Armin

Reading is Fundamental is Fun

Established in 1966, Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is a nonprofit literacy organization whose main mission is “to motivate young children to read by working with children, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life.” In its 44-year history RIF has distributed more than 380 million free, new books to more than 33 million children and counts with 400,000 volunteers nationwide but without a prominent and relevant brand campaign since the 1980s, RIF has lost awareness in the eyes of the public. Working with Mother New York, RIF has introduced a new identity, with the logo having been rolled out in November of last year and a more comprehensive brand being rolled out now.

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Opinion BY Armin

Harrison’s Smile

Established this year, Harrison’s Fund is a new charity in the UK created to fight Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy — an affliction most common in boys who first show signs at toddler age and whose muscles will give in by the time they are teenagers or in their early twenties. The fund is named after the founders’ son, 5-year-old Harrison Smith, diagnosed in 2011. Their new logo was created by London-based Pearlfisher.

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A B-Side BY Armin

NYC Media Lab

Launched this year by a partnership of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, NYU-Poly, and Columbia University, NYC Media Lab is a “public-private partnership encompassing all the universities of NYC. The Lab tackles the big questions facing the media industry today, with the goal of generating research, knowledge transfer, talent development, R&D, and new business models.” The identity was designed by Brooklyn-based Red Antler. Their project page here and some applications below (or after the jump).

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A B-Side BY Armin

Meebo

Launched in 2005, Meebo is a “consumer internet company that organizes the web around people, and helps build out their interest graph for easy, faster access to relevant info on the web.” They recently relaunched their service and are sporting a new logo.

Thanks to Andrew Watterson for the tip.

Opinion BY John J Custer

I’m With…

Formerly known as Polytechnic South West until 1992, Plymouth University is the ninth largest university in the UK, with a student body reaching just over 30,000 students along with 3,000 faculty and staff members. In June of this year, Plymouth University launched its new identity, “With Plymouth University,” designed jointly by here design and Buddy.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Pacífico Seguros

Pacífico Seguros is one of the leading insurance companies in Peru. New logo designed by FutureBrand. Lovely typography and great “fi” ligature.

Thanks to Franco Zegovia for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

ForeSeeing Arrows

Established in 2001, ForeSee Results “measures satisfaction across customer touch points and delivers critical insights on where to prioritize improvements for maximum impact.” With 200 employees and 58 million completed surveys ForeSee Results has become one of the most reliable tools for measuring customer satisfaction and is quoted regularly in the media. In August, the company announced it would be shortening its name to ForeSee and introduced a new logo designed by Lippincott.

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Opinion BY Armin

All Work and No Play

Established in 1998, Play.com started as an online retailer of DVDs in the UK and has since grown to offer over 8 million items including CDs, books, video games, toys, electronics, and MP3 downloads. After Amazon, it is the second leading online retailer in the UK. In August, Play.com introduced a new identity and a whole new website. There is also a U.S.-based version of Play.com that hasn’t changed logo or web design, probably because no one here considers anything but Amazon.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Koning & Hartman

Established in 2005, Koning & Hartman is a Dutch business-to-business provider of telecommunication services. New logo introduced back in April. No further info.

Thanks to Maarten Heijmerink for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

A Hell of a Place

Established many centuries ago, and its existence debated by many, Hell is a destination for suffering, punishment, and exposure to open flames for those that deserve it. With a long and well documented competition with Heaven, whose existence is also debated by many, Hell has seen a decline in population and brand recognition. This August — fittingly the hottest month of the year — the Hell Office of Travel and Tourism has introduced a new identity designed by Chicago, IL-based Chris Herron Design to position Hell as “the premier global tourist destination.”

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A B-Side BY Armin

Canadian Oil Sands

Canadian Oil Sands is the largest owner of Syncrude, a leader in Canada’s oil sands industry, and what it does is that it provides investment opportunities into Syncrude. Earlier this year they introduced a new identity designed by Toronto-based Craib Design & Communications.

Thanks to Raul Leto for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

Manymoon

Manymoon is a cloud application that adds all kinds of task management functionalities to, and integrates with, Google applications. It was recently acquired by Salesforce.com.

Thanks to Austin Bales for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

New Miracle Balloon, now Hotter

Originally a televised fundraiser first aired in 1983, Children’s Miracle Network — now Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals — has since raised over $4.2 billion in funds that go directly to over 170 children’s hospitals. Most impressively, a lot of those billion dollars are raised $1 or $2 at a time through the sale of the paper “Miracle Balloons.” This month Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals announced its name change along with a new identity done pro-bono by the Cincinnati office of Landor.

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Opinion BY Armin

Mega Amount of Triangles

Originally launched as Red Televisiva Megavisión in 1990, Mega is a popular TV channel in Chile, specifically in the capital city of Santiago where it airs, with a mix of news, reality, and sitcoms like a remake of Married%hellip; with Children (the Bundys are replaced by the Larraíns). In October, Mega introduced a new logo, reportedly designed by local agency Hambre, who were also in charge of the recent Chilean government identity. (They don’t have a website I know of, so it’s hard to corroborate 100%).

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Opinion BY Armin

Hi Pink

Last month, Telkom, the state-owned provider of landline phone services in South Africa, introduced a new mobile service that is only the fourth brand to enter the market — behind Cell C (which we covered in August), Vodacom, and MTN. To introduce the new service Telkom worked with McCann Erickson, who created a pre-launch campaign that inundated the public with cryptic and playful billboards and print advertisements with the word “Heita” (South African slang for “hi”), rendered all in black-and-white with the exception of a pink dot. The pre-launch campaign served to introduce the correct pronunciation of the new provider, 8.ta.

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