Opinion by Paul Vickers Posted BY Brand New

Bonjour Mon’op

Established in 1932, Monoprix is an mid/upper-market department store and convenience store chain in France with a turnover in excess of 3.3 billion euros through 400 stores — many of them Monoprix proper but there are also smaller specialty stores called Monop’, Monop’ Beauty, Monop’ Daily, and Monop’ Station. An institution, Monoprix has traded under the “M” in a red lozenge symbol and a classic serifed uppercase typestyle for over 80 years. A new identity by British design agency Lewis Moberly was launched earlier this month. A comprehensive PDF covers all the changes, from the logo to the store to the uniforms and more.

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Opinion BY Armin

Blackletter by the Bay

Established in 1670 — making it North America’s “longest continually operated company” — Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) is the parent company of one of Canada’s most recognizable and visited department stores, Hudson’s Bay, with 90 locations across the country, known and identified simply as The Bay since 1965. In 2008, HBC was acquired by U.S. private equity firm, NRDC Equity Partners, owner of department store Lord & Taylor. Although the new wordmark for Hudson’s Bay has been circulating since late last year, last week HBC officially announced that the department store would change its name from The Bay (La Baie in French) to Hudson’s Bay (La Baie d’Hudson) and confirmed the new wordmark designed by New York-based Lipman as well as a revival of its original coat of arms drawn by Canadian scratchboard artist Mark Summers.

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Opinion BY Armin

Eye Candy, Literally

The Grand America is a luxury hotel in Salt Lake City, UT. With 775 rooms, the 24-story hotel is one of the select few to earn the title of AAA Five Diamond Hotel. Apart from fancy rooms with “Murano crystal chandeliers, handcrafted Richelieu furniture, English wool carpets, Carrera Italian marble, and the finest fabrics,” the hotel features a handful of high-end stores, including the brand new JouJou: A Curious Boutique for Toys and Treats. Local firm Struck was in charge of developing this whole new little world.

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Opinion BY Armin

The Country’s Blandest Yogurt?

I never thought the day would come but, these days, I would much rather have a tart frozen yogurt sprinkled with blackberries and coconut shavings than a creamy chocolate ice cream sprinkled with chocolate chips. Years ago, it was fat over fat-free. Perhaps the boom of the “froyo” craze, fueled by Pinkberry, of the mid-2000s had something to do with it, which has positioned this treat as a cool, groovy, healthy swirl to consume. Not even remotely associated with the upheaval of the froyo is TCBY (The Country’s Best Yogurt), the forefather of consumer frozen yogurt that opened its first store in 1981 and now has over 900 franchise locations, approximately 400 of those outside the United States. I remember the TCBY in a mall in Mexico, it was full of hippie foods and it couldn’t shake the old school health attitude if its granola depended on it. In the last ten years in the US, I don’t recall, once, seeing a TCBY outpost. Surely, I have, but it has receded into the background against its contemporary, colorful rivals. In June, TCBY announced plans to change all this, introducing a new store design and identity created by Salt Lake City, UT-based Struck/Axiom.

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