Mr Kipling brand history

Earlier this year, you could read about a new design for Mr. Kipling, a classic British brand for ready-made pies and cakes. The history of its conception and subsequent development in the last decade is a somewhat interesting one.

The brand was created in the 1960s by Rank Hovis McDougall who wanted revitalize their cake sales, but also wanted to utilise a new bakery. When the brand launched in 1967, the range included 20 products that were sold in premium boxes with handles.

Mr. Kipling himself never actually existed, he was an invention by marketing men who wanted to give a traditional family feel for something that is actually industrially produced. This was reinforced through ads suggesting Mr Kipling was a small shop baker, specifically in TV ads where James Hayter did the voice of Mr. Kipling. A successful example of the perhaps a bit disingenuous tactic of implying great heritage where none exists.
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7up (2010)

Last year, PepsiCo started rolling out a new look for 7up in the markets where they own the brand, which is essentially every country except the United States, where 7up is a part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

In March this year, it was reported that the New York design agency TracyLocke was credited with creating the new look. Their case study contained the following introduction:

It’s time to get fresh! That’s why 7up International is stripping it all away and going back to what always made it great: lemons, limes, bubbles, and that iconic number 7. We’re revealing the naked truth that refreshing flavor is what matters most. Telling the whole world that “Simpler Is Better” with a new logo, new packaging, and sparkling activation around the globe. Because 7up knows that a simpler life is the way to a richer life.

Regional branches apparently had great liberty in applying the design. Some markets went for a simpler graphic design with flat circles, while other used meaty slices of lemon and lime with lots of gradients.

Cans with the new logo have been spotted as early as June 2010, with Canada probably being one of the first markets to get the new design. I remember seing the new design back in December. In January, it was discovered that the German division of PepsiCo had set up a website with the new design. The global rollout continued during 2011.

Below is a little gallery with shots of 7up packaging that have been uploaded by Flickr users around the world.
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Swiss Miss brand history

Swiss Miss is an American brand of cocoa mix powders and chocolate puddings. Having been with the American people for half a century, it is one those classic brands that many remember growing up with.

Thanks to the Internet, innovative companies and people willing to share their collections, we can get a good view of how the brand and its packaging has progressed through the years. A special thanks to Jason Liebig who has given me permission to use some images from his collection. If you want even more packaging nostalgia, you should visit his Flickr photostream.

Swiss Miss original logo, used from the 1960s until the mid-1980s.

The "instant cocoa mix" powder, which creates delicious hot cocoa by just adding water, was developed by Sanna Dairies in Wisconsin, who were also manufacturing instant dry milk. It was originally served on airlines. In the early 1960s, Sanna Dairies were packing the product under the name "Swiss Miss Instant Cocoa Mix" and selling it to grocers. The original packaging was developed with "old world" aestethics, with decorative flowers and an old calligraphy typeface for the logo. A newspaper article published in February 1963 explained it thusly:

"The chocolate flavor developed by Sanna Dairies is reminiscent of delicious Swiss milk chocolate... thus the name and the attractive "old world" design package."

The black-and-white image of a Swiss Miss package on the right is from a 1962 ad. It may well have been the very first Swiss Miss packaging design.
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New logo: Avio

Avia is an Italian aerospace company, which produces parts for both civil and military aircrafts. It was a part of the Fiat Group until 2003, when its was sold to private equity. Yesterday, July 25, Avia launched a new identity yesterday, developed by the Italian design agency Ineditha.

Previous logo.

The previous logo was introduced when the company separated from Fiat and changed its name from FiatAvio. The double-wings were also used in the last FiatAvio logo. In the new logo, both the wingspans and the wordmark have been given a much needed update.

The following quote comes from the press relase provides further information.
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Metz (2008)

With 125,000 inhabitants, Metz is the 29th largest city in France. It is also the capital of the Lorraine region.

In December 2008, Metz introduced a new visual identity. At the center is a new symbol, a combination of yellow triangles in a square shape the create the initial letter 'M'. At the time it was said to symbolise solid foundations, a safe bet, as well as innovation and future.

Previous logo.

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New logo: St. Kitts tourism

The island of Saint Kitts, with a population of 35,000 people, is a part of the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. This year, the St. Kitts Tourism Authority has introduced a new logo to market itself to tourists.

Previous logo.

Replacing a combination of a script wordmark and a local flower, the new logo is an elegant italic wordmark. A ligature between the upper-case S and the lowercase T creates an "open  heart". There is also a "signature graphic" which is inspired by the wordmark and includes another open heart and some waves. To further enforce the heart theme, the new tagline is "Follow Your Heart". The colour scheme (brown and beige) was reportedly inspired by Saint Kitts's natural landscape.
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New logo: Atos

Last week, on July 1, the global IT company Atos Origin announced that it had finalized its aquistion of Siemens IT Solutions and Services. With the merger, the company took the opportunity to drop "Origin" from its name and introduce a new corporate identity.

Although based in France and listed on Euronext Paris, Atos is a truly global company, which claims to have 78,500 employeees in 42 countries. Atos has been the Worldwide IT Partner for the Olympic Games since 2002.

Atos Origin logo.

The new corporate identity means a farewell to the tropical fish that has been with the company since May 1997 when the name Atos was introduced after the merger of Sligos and Axime. Back then, it was said to symbolize "mobility, responsiveness and vitality". When Atos and Origin merged in 2000, the fish was carried on to the merged corporate identity.

Atos logo from 1997.

The press release about the merger also mentions the rebrand:
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Olympic bid emblem: Munich 2018

The host of the 2018 Winter Olympics is announced on July 6. Preparing for this, The Branding Source presents the emblems for the three Olympic bids.

Despite being a major winter sports nation, Germany has only hosted the Winter Olympics once, and that was in 1936. Should Munich win the games, they would be the first nation to host both a Winter and a Summer game, as they hosted the Summer games in 1972.

The logo for Munich's application was unveiled on October 16, 2009, just as the IOC had announced that Munich had officially become an applicant city. The logo was selected through an online poll involving three suggestions. The winning design was a stylised M, which could also be likened to the mountains around the city and the roof of the Olympiapark, which was constructed for the 1972 games.

Applicant logo.

When it was unveiled, the logo included a colourful stylised snowflake. It was replaced by the Olympic rings in June 2010 when the IOC declared Munich an official candidate city.
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Olympic bid emblem: PyeongChang 2018

The host of the 2018 Winter Olympics is announced on July 6. Preparing for this, The Branding Source presents the emblems for the three Olympic bids.

The South Korean region PyeongChang's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics is its third bid in a row, after very strong bids for the 2010 and 2014 games which they lost narrowly. Should they win, this would be the first Winter Game held in South Korea.

PyeongChang was the last Olympic applicant to reveal its logo, and did so on January 14, 2010. The following explanation of the logo was provided in an official press release:

The logo shows the spectacular winter scenery of PyeongChang with snowing on the mountains. The dynamics of Olympics and the challenge spirit to victory was represented by the gushing curve. It implies the strong will to win the bid with the curve symbolizing a snowboard and slope of winter sports.

The Olympic rings were added after the IOC declared PyeongChang an official candidate city in June 2010.

PyeongChang 2018 (archive)
GamesBids
Around the Rings

Olympic bid emblem: Annecy 2018

The host of the 2018 Winter Olympics is announced on July 6. Preparing for this, The Branding Source presents the emblems for the three Olympic bids.

Several French cities had expressed interest in hosting the 2018 Olympics, and after considering their opinions, the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) decided that it would bid. In March 2009, it was anounced that Annecy, a city in the Alps with 50,000 inhabitants, would be the French applicant.

The first logo used for Annecy's attempt to host the Olympics was introduced in 2008, before they had even been recognised by their national Olympic committee as an applicant. Annecy is situated by a lake with mountains around it, and the logo featured mountains and a lake.

The first Annecy 2018 logo.

What Annecy 2018 ended up using as their official applicant logo was a more modern version of its first logo. It was unveiled at a ceremony on the morning of December 1, 2009.

"More modern and more dynamic, the new bid logo expresses the international dimension of the bid." - News article form Annecy 2018

The lake and the mountains were updated and five lines were added. Although the typographic treatment of "Annecy 2018" remained in essence, it was polished somewhat, ironing out some curls, giving the entire logo a look more fitting for a modern sports brand.

The offical applicant logo.

The Olympic rings were added after the IOC declared Annecy an official candidate city in June 2010.

Annecy 2018 news article (archive)
Tribune de Genève

New logo: Zee Network

The major Indian media conglomerate Zee Enterprises Entertainment Limited, also known as Zee Network, has launched a company-wide rebrand today. The new logo was launched at a 90-minute special event in Mumbai which was simulcast by Zee TV channels around the world.

The plans for the rebrand were unveiled through a press release on May 23. The big reveal was today, June 19, although some glimpses of the new logo could be seen before that.

The new logo is a shiny Z, which was reportedly created by Zee's in-house team.

Previous logo.

The Zee Network's previous on-air look was introduced at the end of March 2005.

"Developed by the in-house team, Zee TV’s aqua blue colour new logo features a stylish font. The new age design with its upward flourish signifies the upward movement of desires and wishes. The abstract form of the ‘Z’ and vibrancy of aqua blue bring in modernity and freshness to the brand. “The unshackling of the ‘Z’ from the box symbolizes today’s woman’s zest for life and confidence to go out in the world beyond her home. The overall design has a progressive feel and reflects the idea of looking into the future with hope and depicts a more dynamic and spirited outlook. The rainbow of hope is a very important element of the new packaging. It is colourful, ethereal and symbolically emphasizes the promise of ‘Umeed Se Saje Zindagi’… celebrating hope and life,” says Goenka." - Press release, (Punit Goenka is managing director and CEO of Zee)

After launching its first TV network in 1992, Zee's portfolio has grown to dozens of different television channels with programs in Hindi, English and many of the other languages spoken in India. It also has an extensive network of TV channels for Indian diasporas around the world. This rebrand follows a relaunch of Zee's competitor Star, whose primary network StarPlus was rebranded almost exactly a year ago.

The table below contains the new and old logos of the different Zee channels. Most of the previous Zee logos were introduced in 2005. The previous logos for the English-language channels Zee Studio and Zee Café were introduced in November last year, but have been updated to include the new Z. So far, there are no new logos for 9X, an entertainment channel aquired last year, and the TEN sports channels.
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New logo: CBS Sports Network

The Disney-owned ESPN has long been the dominant basic cable sports channel in the United States. It has been so succesful and its brand has become so well known, that the sports coverage on Disney's broadcast network ABC was rebranded "ESPN on ABC" back in 2006.

Other cable sports channels have usually been regional or specialized in some way, but that now seems about to change. Ever since the NBC Universal-Comcast merger was announced, it has been speculated that Comcast's sports channel Versus would be rebranded and take the NBC Sports name. That rebranding is now imminent and is expected to take place in the coming weeks. Given the recent announcement that NBCUniversal will have exclusive rights to the Olympics until 2020, an "NBC Sports Channel" would have a lot going for it.

Another sports network which has rebranded to take on ESPN is the CBS College Sports Network, which had its name shortened to CBS Sports Network on April 4. This allows the network to expand its content to sports in general, although the network promises it will still have a focus on college sports. The network has its origins in CSTV, which was purchased by CBS Corporation over five years ago and renamed to include CBS branding in 2008.

The CBS College Sports Network logo, used between 2008-2011.

As for the new logo, it is essentially the regular CBS Sports logo with "Network" attached to it. As a side note, one can mention that the typeface is spceially commissioned and is called "CBS Sports". The CBS Sports logo has been used at least since the early 1980s.
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New logo: MuchMusic

MuchMusic is a Canadian cable television channel dedicated to music and music-related programming. Launched in 1984, it was clearly inspired by MTV in the United States, which Canadians couldn't watch because of the country's peculiar broadcasting regulations.

Recently, MuchMusic launched a new logo which can be seen above. It is much simpler and elegant than the cartoonish "planet" logo the channel has used until now. The version above uses various pastel colors, but there are also single color variants in use.

Previous logo.

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New logo: Kabel Eins Classics

Kabel Eins Classics is a German pay TV channel which broadcasts classic TV series and movies. It was launched on June 1, 2006. It belongs to the ProSiebenSat.1 Media group, a the name is derived from one of the group's free TV channels, kabel eins. Today it celebrated its fifth birthday by launching a completely new look for the first time.

Previous logo.

The new logo put emphasis on the word "Classics", while the kabel eins symbol sits as an approval mark from the free TV channel. The colour scheme is orange, black and white, which is used a lot in the on-air graphics. IDs and other on-air elements show scenes from genres relevant to the channel in this colour scheme.

Some examples of ID spots, posted by Kabel Eins Classics:
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New logo: Discovery Home & Health

Discovery Home & Health is an international lifestyle channel brand targeting women. It is owned by Discovery Communications and available in three areas: Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the United Kingdom. Recently, the Latin American version of the channel was rebranded with a new on-air look and a new logo to give the channel a more fresh and contemporary look. The new look was launched on May 3, but promos advertising the rebrand had been running on the channel before that.

Discovery Home & Health logo.
Used in Latin America 2005-2011.
Used in the United Kingdom 2005-2008.
Still used in the Asia-Pacific market.

The new look is credited to Robert Gibson, creative director for lifestyle and entertainment channels at Discovery Networks Latin America in Miami.

An image posted by Discovery Home & Health showing the new on-air look.

Discovery Home & Health in Latin America uses a schedule made up of theme nights; health on Mondays, relationships on Tuesdays, beauty on Wednesdays, home on Thursdays and family on Fridays. The new graphics embrace this by using different images related to these themes, as seen above.
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New logo: Sanofi

Last Friday, May 6, the shareholders of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis approved a decision to shorten the company name to Sanofi. At the same time the company presented and launched a new logo.

Sanofi-Aventis was created in 2004 when Sanofi-Synthelabo bought Aventis. Both preceeding companies were created through mergers in 1999, so this is the first non-merger identity for the company in a while. Sanofi-Synthelabo was created in Elf's Sanofi and L'Oréal's Synthélabo, while Aventis was formed from the German Hoechst and the French Rhône-Poulenc. The shortened name with its consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel structure is easier to pronounce in many different languages.

The new logo includes a new sybmol, called the "Bird of Hope", symbolizing the hope the company's products brings to its costumers. The symbol is made up of three shapes which form a stylized bird. The colours used are blue for water, green for earth, ochre for fire and white for air. The symbol has several meanings, including representing the three principles that sum up Sanofi's strategy.

Previous logo.

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New logo: Sjuan

Sweden's seventh largest television channel, TV4 Plus, changes its name to Sjuan ("the Seven"), with a new logo.

In several countries, television networks name themselves after a number in order to claim that number on the remote control and be listed by that number in programme guides. This is the case in Sweden, where all the major domestic commercial entertainment channels are named after a sequential channel number, and have succesfully claimed that button on the remote control. Last year, they went double-digit with the launch of TV10.

One exception to this rule has been the dominating commercial broadcaster, the TV4 Group, which has named its channels after its primary channel TV4. With this naming strategy came a beutifully consistent, friendly and distinguishable set of logos. Many can be credited to Barbro Ohlson-Smith, who has her own agency, but used to be graphics director for the network. Recently, TV4 has revised their naming strategy and followed suit with numeric names and independent identities for their broad entertainment channels. It started with its youth channel TV400 which took the lowest available number and became TV11 in January.

The plan now continues with their second channel, which until now has been called TV4 Plus. Yesterday, April 26, it was announced that it would be renamed Sjuan ("the Seven") with a new look. The renaming makes sense, as until now TV4 Plus has been the seventh channel in all but name. It is the seventh most watched channel, many newspapers list it as the seventh channel (between TV6 and TV8) and most people have it on number 7 on their electronic programme guide.

The number 7 is however contested, as reported in February, there is another channel which has failed to claim the rights to the name "TV7" and is now known as TNT7. Another channel which claimed number 7 was the immigrant channel Canal 7, which changed its name to Kanal Global on March 16.

As for the new logo, it keeps the circle and the light blue colour from TV4 Plus' logo, creating a new take on the "circle 7" concept.

When  TV4 Plus started in 2003 it was a channel for sports, gambling and hobbies, but it has over time developed into a broad entertainment channel for a female audience. The renaming will take place after the summer.

Current TV4 Plus logo, used since 2007.

The previous logo for TV4 Plus was launched on February 5, 2007 and created by Ohlson-Smith.
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New logo: ABC2

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's public broadcaster. After expanding its portfolio during the last few years, it now has four television channels: the main channel ABC1, the supplementary channel ABC2, the children's channel ABC3 and the news channel ABC News 24.

After relaunching ABC1 on February 6 (archive), the corporation have now followed up with ABC2, for which a new look was unveiled and launched today (archive) (April 1). The new logo is limegreen, and the graphics also use similarly bright color pink. The new tagline also happens to be "Always Brighter". You can see more video on ABC's website.

New logos above, previous logos below:

The previous identities for ABC1 and 2 were both introduced on February 8, 2008, when ABC TV was renamed ABC1.

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Melodifestivalen's new look (2011)

Melodifestivalen ("The Melody Festival") is a Swedish annual music competition, and the most watched television programme in Sweden. The final is usually watched by 3-4 million people, in a country with 9 million inhabitants. The show has been broadcast by the state broadcaster SVT almost every year since 1959, and today much of the Swedish mainstream music scene revolves around this event.

When the show for 2002 was planned, the event's popularity had slipped and SVT felt that the programme needed to be re-tooled. SVT extended it from one single Saturday night broadcast to five events which would take place around the country for more than a month.

The show would also get a consistent look and feel. Before 2002, new graphics and identities were produced every year. SVT turned to broadcast design agency Dallas Sthlm who developed a new generic logo and new graphics for the event, which would be used every year after that. The logo is made up of five spotlights which form a crown.

This logo and graphics package has remained with some updates until the 2011 competition, when it was time to create a new look. This was probably partly due to the show's long overdue switch to HDTV.

SVT once again turned to Dallas Sthlm, who suggested a makeover of the logo and the graphics (archive). The previous graphics were based on lights, the new ones feature fluid shapes. This can be seen in the new logo, which kinda looks like someone threw slime on a wall. Overall, the new look is familiar if you've seen the old one, but has an edgier feel to it.
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DnB NOR logo (2003)

Is this logo dear to you? Does it evoke special feelings? If that is the case, then you better start writing your eulogies, because it will soon disappear.

DnB NOR is the largest financial services company in Norway, formed in 2003 through the merger of Gjensidige NOR and Den norske Bank ("The Norwegian Bank", abbreviated DnB). Recently, Norwegian media have reported that the bank will drop "NOR" from its name, and that the name DnB (or Den norske Bank), will soon stand alone again. A simpler, bolder and more powerful name than before. The renaming also comes with a new logo, expected to be revealed this year.

The logo for the 2003 merger between (the old) DnB and Gjensidige NOR was created by taking the type from the old DnB logo and adding the name "NOR" after it in the same typeface, but in Gjensidige NOR's old red-ish burgundy colour. If one adds a white background colour to DnB's blue and NOR's red, you get the basic colours of the Norwegian flag. The merged bank was launched on December 5, 2003, and the logo was launched at the same time.

The agency behind the merger logo was Scandinavian Design Group, a major Norwegian corporate design agency.

Scandinavian Design Group was also behind a logo refresh for DnB less than two years before the merger, when the typeface was changed and the number of lines that made up the circular symbol in the logo was reduced.
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