New logo: Ankabut

A "National research and education network" (NREN) is an Internet network set up to support academic institutions. Most countries have their own national NREN. In the United Arab Emirates, the NREN is called ANKABUT, which means "spider".

Recently, the network got a new brand identity. It was created by Brash Brands, who announced their work through a press release on May 19, but it seems it had been around for a while before that.



A previous logo.

The rebrand replaces an inconsistent, outdated and technology-minded logo with something more contemporary. Brash Brands offers the following explantion of their symbol:

Taking from this new initiative's vision of providing endless possibilities primarily through collaboration, the brandmark represents a living and breathing ecosystem where multiple pathways interconnect and exchange information and knowledge. Supporting this, the wordmark has been designed to incorporate modern and user friendly aesthetic cues apparent from its crafted typographic curvature and spatial consideration.

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New logo: Msheireb Properties

Dohaland is a subsidiary of the non-profit Qatar Foundation, launched in 2009 and concerned with urban development with a Qatari flare. On April 26, it rebranded and changed its name to Msheireb Properties. The new name comes from Musheireb, a development project to reinvigorate a downtown area in Doha, the first such project launched by the company.

The old Musheireb area was built around a well, and this is a clear inspiration for the brand mark. The circular form can respresent "both the ancient stone well and a window to the future, promising opportunity yet rooted in solid foundations". The olive green colour represents sustainabaility.

Brash Brands has taken credit for the rebrand work. The agency has been busy lately; its rebrand for dnata was launched in the same week, as reported on this blog.

Previous Dohaland logo.

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New logo: Dnata

Dnata is an aviation services company which provides ground handling, cargo and catering on several airports around the world. It claims to be the fourth largest in its field with 20,000 employees on 73 airports in 38 countries across five continents. The Dubai-based company is a part of The Emirates Group, whose most prominent brand is the Emirates airline, one of the world's largest passenger airlines.

Today (April 28), the company unveiled a new identity which had been created by Brash Brands, also a Dubai company, who were given the task last August. Dnata has grown rapidly lately through acquisitions and joint-ventures, with the problems that brings in the form of mixed corporate cultures and the absence of singular visions. An important objective of the rebrand has been to create a more united company.

As for the new logo, it carries on the colors green and blue from the old logo. It is a pretty straight-forward and friendly wordmark, with the triangles in the letter D giving it some character. Those triangles are then used extensively when the new identity is applied.

The previous Dnata logo was introduced in the year 2000.

Dnata's previous logo, used between 2000 and 2011.

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New logo: Etihad Rail

Union Railway is an enterprise which was launched in 2009 to build a railway network in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which until recently hasn't had any railways. Yesterday evening, March 23, a new corporate identity was unveiled which renames the company Etihad Rail. Etihad happens to mean "union" in Arabic.

The new symbol uses the colours of the UAE flag. A red line extends from the symbol over the company name. This line usually continues when the logo is placed on a paper or on rolling stock

The new identity was developed by Brash Brands, a brand consultancy from Dubai.

More after the jump!
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