Opinion BY Armin

Activating Schools without Clichés

Launched at the end of February, Let’s Move! Active Schools is a new initiative that will provide “simple steps and tools to help schools create active environments where students get 60 minutes of physical activity before, during and after the school day.” Active Schools is part of Michelle Obama’s larger Let’s Move program and is being powered by Nike, which will invest over the course of five years “$50 million in the U.S. to increase the physical activity of kids in schools and communities as well as target advocacy efforts to inspire kids and draw additional resources to this important effort” as stated in this press release that lists the rest of the program’s partners. Nike worked with Wolff Olins to create a new brand for Let’s Move! Active Schools.

Update: The Nike team that worked with WO was Joe Stitzlein and Michael Malowanczyk. A few more images have been posted at the end, courtesy of Michael.

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Opinion BY Armin

Mozilla to Mobile OSes: Fox You.

Launched last month, Firefox OS is a new operating system developed by Mozilla specifically for use in mobile devices. Like its popular (free and open source) browser, Firefox, this OS “brings the freedom and unbounded innovation of the open Web to mobile users everywhere” as Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla announced. Firefox OS is entering a very tough market where Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android have a stronghold on the market so it’s up to Mozilla’s do-good vibe and geek-cred to gain ground on the iOS’ chastity-belt-approach and Android’s super-deploying powers to become a contender. So far 17 mobile operators around the world have committed to Firefox OS and upcoming smartphones built specifically for it will launch later this year. To help Firefox OS build a broader consumer brand of its own Mozilla worked with Wolff Olins to “unleash the Fox”.

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Opinion BY Armin

Follow-up: Windows 8

Back in February we reported on the new Windows 8 logo designed by Pentagram partner Paula Scher — a release that got its thunder stolen by the leaking of the logo (not by us) ahead of time (not our fault). Officially, the Windows 8 logo is this and eight months after it was “unveiled,” the actual software behind the new, non-flag-anymore-logo was launched this past Friday to much hoopla around the world. See launch video later in this post. As part of the OS re-launch, which is a major departure from past Windowses, Microsoft is taking this opportunity to kickstart its new branding — after all, Windows is only the most used operating system in the world, so a lot of people are paying attention. The branding effort which now covers Windows but will spread into other Microsoft products has been lead by Wolff Olins, who describe their role to be “to curate all of the components and contributions into one clear, creative brand experience for consumers.” In the case of Windows these contributions include new packaging with structural construction by IDEO, illustrations conceived in collaboration with and created by Colors and The Kids, and brand imagery and video by Todd Selby.

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Opinion BY Armin

Logo Gigante!

With a history dating back to a single television station in 1955 in San Antonio, TX, Univision (as it was named in 1986) today is the leading Spanish-language television network and media company for Hispanics in the United States. With programming that covers everything from the storied telenovelas (soap operas) to sports to the juggernaut that is Sabado Gigante, Univision is mostly known as a television channel but it also owns radio stations and websites. Yesterday, they unveiled a new logo designed by Wolff Olins.

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Opinion BY Armin

USA TODAY for Tomorrow

Founded in 1982, USA TODAY is the second largest newspaper (behind The Wall Street Journal and its 2.1 million copies) in the United States with 1.8 million copies circulating every weekday — reportedly “one in every seven Americans interacts with USA TODAY on a weekly basis.” — and is best known for its concise and visual approach to delivering news. Its online counterpart, USATODAY.com receives 6.6 million readers daily and mobile apps complete the picture for this “multi-platform news and information media company” owned by Gannett. Late last week, USA TODAY announced a complete redesign of all its platforms, including the ubiquitous print edition and its identity, both designed by Wolff Olins — all digital applications were done by Fantasy Interactive covering their strategy, user experience, design, and development. The beta version with the new look can be seen here.

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Opinion BY Armin

Visualizing the 4G Network

Established in 2010 as the parent company for Orange and T-Mobile, Everything Everywhere is the UK’s largest communications company, providing mobile and fixed-broadband communications services to more than 27 million customers. Yesterday Everything Everywhere — who is making a big push to move the UK into full 4G service — announced it would rebrand as EE, a “superfast customer brand offering 4G mobile services and fixed fibre broadband, and it will open revamped EE-branded stores.” The EE consumer brand will be part of the Everything Everywhere family, along with the Orange and T-Mobile brands. EE plans to introduce 4G across 16 UK cities by the end of 2012, with 98% population coverage planned by the end of 2014. The new identity has been designed by Wolff Olins with EE.

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Opinion BY Armin

One Gradient to Rule them All

Founded in 1988, Adani Group is one of the largest conglomerates in India with businesses in industries ranging from coal trading and mining, to ports and transportation, to power generation and gas distribution. These activities have now been organized under three main headings: Resources, Logistics, and Energy. Adani has 9,000 employees with offices in India, Australia, and Indonesia. Looking to further expand its reach and business as well as “to manage its brand actively and professionally” Adani Group has introduced a new identity designed by the Dubai office of Wolff Olins.

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Opinion BY Armin

Meet Mr. PIP

Established in 1983, Belkin designs and produces a broad range of consumer electronic products, from routers, to mobile accessories, to a perplexing but always life-saving range of USB and cables — or, as they so eloquently and on-brand put it, “Belkin products connect the dots between people and technology.” To coincide with, CES, the biggest electronic show — and with the return of Belkin founder, Chet Pipkin (pay attention to the name) — Belkin has introduced a new identity designed by Wolff Olins.

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Opinion BY Armin

Asian Art Museum Turned on its Head

First opened in 1966 as a wing of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum, now in its own building, is currently one of the largest museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian Art, housing a collection of over 17,000 artworks. It was also one of the most financially troubled museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian Art with a $120 million debt, which was recently announced would be solved, setting the museum up for a much needed reinvention: “Our new brand,” explains Jay Xu, Director of the Asian Art Museum “promises to awaken the past and inspire the next. It means we’ll unlock the past for visitors and bring it to life by sparking connections. We’ll also be a catalyst for new art, new creativity and new thinking.” To help turn things around, literally, the Asian Art Museum worked with Wolff Olins to design its new identity.

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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

Hero MotoCorp

Established in 1984 as a partnership between Japan’s Honda and India’s Hero Group, Hero Honda has grown to be the largest manufacturer and seller of motorcycles in India. This month, with Hero taking over the whole business, the company was renamed Hero MotoCorp. The new logo has been designed by Wolff Olins. Story here.

Opinion BY Armin

Current Lets its Bold Flag Fly

Launched in 2005 by former Vice President Al Gore (before An Inconvenient Truth fame) and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt, Current TV was originally a pretty drastic model of programming, featuring user-generated “pods” reflecting a broad range of topics and opinions that lasted anywhere from 3 to 10 minutes. You could tune in at any time of day and just jump right in into whatever was going on and not have to worry about following typically scheduled programming. This was the same year YouTube launched and before it went as big as it is now, so the concept was fairly ahead of the curve. Current gathered some initial attention but then it just kind of disappeared as the novelty wore off and despite hiring former MTV Networks’ President Mark Rosenthal, toying with the idea of going public, and transitioning into 30- and 60-minute programming Current felt anything but. Enter Keith Olbermann, the love-him-or-hate-him, ex-ESPN anchor turned political commentator. In February Current announced that Olbermann would be taking his show, Countdown With Keith Olbermann, from MSNBC to their cable channel starting June 20. Reminiscent of when Howard Stern announced he would be leaving the broader air waves for SiriusXM, Olbermann’s move to Current gave it instant relevance. Last week, Current quietly introduced a new look, launched the website for Olbermann’s show, Countdown, and over the Summer will be implementing the new look. The identity has been designed by Wolff Olins with motion assistance by Ghava, the on-air look is by loyalkaspar, and web design by Code and Theory.

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Follow-Up BY Armin

Follow-Up: Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art

Funny how things work out: On Friday of last week, same day as the Brand New Awards judging, we published the Mathaf identity design by Wolff Olins. I published it hesitantly because the images and explanations found online were very scarce, Clinton did a very good job in cobbling together a review based on that, so I went with it. Although Wolff Olins’ entry had arrived at the office earlier in the week I hadn’t had a chance to leaf through it. It was until Friday, when the judges were discussing it, that I was able to see the extent of the identity. When they selected it as Best of Show I was bummed that the post we had about it was not representative of the work. Now that the Mathaf identity has a brighter spotlight on it, I’m very pleased to be able to show some of the images in the entry so that you can see what the judges saw. In Friday’s post we had also wrongly attributed the custom typeface to Tarek Atrissi Design — they were responsible for the hand-drawn type shown here now in its completion, and the thin, mono weight typeface was designed by Pascal Zoghbi from 29ArabicLetters.

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Opinion BY Clinton Duncan

Typography: Where East Meets West

Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art (pronounced mat-haf) is a new modern art museum in Doha, Qatar. Its mission is to showcase modern and contemporary art from the region, shifting existing perceptions of arts practice in the Arab world, and provide a forum for dialogue and scholarship. An existing building, in the traditional style, was redesigned by French architect Jean-François Bodin and the new branding was handled by the Dubai office of Wolff Olins with two custom typefaces, one by Tarek Atrissi Design and another by Pascal Zoghbi from 29ArabicLetters.

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Opinion BY Armin

The NBC Peacock is Gone and Rightfully So

In 2004 General Electric, the parent company of American television network NBC, purchased 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, the parent company of Universal Pictures, cable channels like USA Network and Syfy (then Sci-Fi Channel), and the Universal Studios theme parks. NBC Universal was born. A powerful entertainment company with major real estate on television: NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, Syfy, USA Network, A&E, MSNBC, and CNBC among others. In 2009, cable operator Comcast announced its plans to purchase a stake in NBC Universal and as of last week, with approval of the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of Justice, Comcast now owns 51% of NBC Universal, while General Electric owns 49%. On Friday, at an employee town hall meeting, Steve Burke, COO of Comcast and CEO of the new company, announced a new name, NBCUniversal (no space, thank you), and a new logo designed by Wolff Olins.

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Announcement BY Armin

Ask Wolff Olins

For the Brand New Conference this coming November, Jordan Crane (creative director) and Karl Heiselman (CEO) of Wolff Olins will put together a presentation based on your questions. So… What would you ask Wolff Olins? And be nice!

Opinion BY Armin

PricewaterhouseCoopersWasALongName

The clearest picture I have of what PricewaterhouseCoopers does is of two dudes in tuxedos holding a briefcase with the envelopes that announce the winners at the Oscars. But, clearly, with 163,000 employees in 151 countries they do more than that. They are one of the “Big Four” professional services firms — the three others are Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young, and KPMG — and boast gross revenues of 26.2 billion USD (fiscal year 2009). Officially, they “provide industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to enhance value for their clients.” Yesterday was the official announcement that PricewaterhouseCoopers would be changing its name to PwC, keeping the mouthful of a name as the full name of the global organization for legal purposes. PwC also introduced a new identity created by the London office of Wolff Olins.

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Opinion BY Armin

MapQuest comes Alive

Back in September of 2008 we reported on the evolution of the MapQuest logo and the feeling of the majority was that it was too little too late to make up ground against Google Maps — two years later, MapQuest is betting that it’s not too late with a complete overhaul of their identity and their mapping experience. As a subsidiary of AOL, MapQuest will be integrating the local brainpower provided by its sibling service, Patch; you can read the full details of what MapQuest is setting out to do in their blog. The new identity has been designed by Wolff Olins.

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Opinion BY Armin

Follow-up: AOL, Round 2

Six months after rebooting their identity and to coincide with their 25th anniversary celebrations, AOL has unleashed its “2nd Collection” of logos and animations with help from designers, illustrators and animators around the world, with direction by Wolff Olins. To consolidate this effort, AOL has launched AOL Artists, a repository of all the contributors and snippets of their work, a fairly generous move to acknowledge these artists’ work and give them some additional exposure. AOL Artists also introduces “Project on Creativity,” a year-long celebration that highlights one creative icon — Chuck Close being the inaugural one — and also awards twenty-five scholarships, each of $25,000, to upcoming talent. Finally, a new corporate site for AOL is now live.

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