New logo: Direct Énergie

Direct Énergie is a French power company, formed in 2003 after the energy market was opened up to private competition. In July this year it merged with another electricity company called Poweo. This presented the opportunity to introduce a new corporate identity, which was launched last week and was created by Dragon Rouge.

The new symbol is a circle, representing unity and togetherness. Its yellow colour is for warmth and optimism and the wordmark is set in rounded lowercase letters, which should convey proximity to consumers.
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New logos: Grupa Topex

Grupa Topex is a Polish tool manufacturer. This month, it launched a new corporate identity and also introduced new visual identities for two of its largest brand, Topex and Neo Tools. All three identities were created by the Warsaw office of Dragon Rouge.

For Topex, Dragon Rouge created a T-shield and made the yellow colour associated with the brand brighter. Neo has a polished metallic look. The new corporate logo is said to represent "solidity, maturity and competence". It is characterised by a red "pointer" that can also be used separately.
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New logo: Actimel

Actimel is a "probiotic" yogurt drink manufactured by the global dairy group Danone and sold in Europe, Latin America and North America (where it is known as DanActive). This month it has introduced a revitalised visual identity in the UK, created by Dragon Rouge in London.

The most noticeable part of the redesign is an overhaul of the brand logo, probably the most substantial redesign of Actimel's logo since its launch

Actimel's visual identity differs a bit between markets, but the logo has typically used a purple serifa for 'Acti-' and a blue san-serif for '-mel', with a yellow arch tying them together. The new logo introduces a contemporary typeface and drops the arch for a sunrise icon. A sunrise has previously featured on the Actimel bottles.
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New logo: Virgin Mobile

The French mobile phone operator Virgin Mobile unveiled a new logo at the beginning of this week, which it will start using in April when it launches a new ADSL box. The new logo is credited to French branding agency Dragon Rouge.

The French Virgin Mobile is a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Carphone Warehouse. The brand is also present on several other markets around the world. At the moment, it seems this logo change will only affect the French market.
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New logo: Smartbox

Smartbox is a French company offering themed gift boxes in stores and via the Internet. Started in 2003, it is now active in several countries. Last year, its visual identity was revitalised by the French brand agency Dragon Rouge. The agency created several detailed ribbon devices to make the packaging remind people of actual wrapped gifts. The logo was given a necesssary cleanup, and is sometimes supported by a white card with a green ribbon resembling the letter S.
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New look: Gellwe

Gellwe is a Polish brand for desserts, cake mixes and baking products. Since the start of this year, the brand has sported a revitalised look, in the form of an updated logo redesigned packaging. The Polish branch of Dragon Rouge were behind the new design.

The redesign was obviously concerned with preserving equity. All basic elements remain, but have been refined in detail. The logo has been given a much needed typeface change, but is still highly recognisable. The ribbon that sits behind the logo on packaging has also been redesigned.
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New logo: Sygnity

Sygnity is a Polish information technology services provides. On Monday, December 5, it launched a new corporate identity, replacing a logo that had been used since the company was formed through a merger in 2007. A press release says the new identity has a "more open and modern character".
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Follow-up: LU

Very loyal readers may remember the new visual identity for the French biscuit brand LU a couple of months back. Behind it was the French design agency Dragon Rouge. Raymond Loewy, who did the same thing over fifty years earlier, compared it to redesigning the French flag when he faced the same task

When I published the original article, information was somewhat scarce. Last month, Dragon Rouge launched a new global website, and it includes a case study for this rebrand with a bunch of nice pictures and more information. Of those against the new logo, this could help turn around the ones who are not too stubborn.
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New logo: LU

Follow-up article: December 5

The French biscuit brand LU, or Lefèvre-Utile, originated in the mid-19th century. Today it is present in several international markets and is a part of Kraft Foods, after the multinational snacks company bought LU during one of its shopping sprees.

Recently, LU started using a refreshed logo on the French market. Dragon Rouge are credited for this redesign.

Previous logo.

LU has long been identified by two elongated white letters on a red rectangle. The first iteration of this logo was designed in the 1950s by Raymond Loewy. A redesign in the 1990s added a curl to the logo that revealed its yellow backside.

This latest redesign replaces the rectangle with a more dynamic irregular background plate. As is fashionable today, the letters now have rounded corners, and some slight drop shadows and bevels are included. It also adds the tagline "creator of biscuits since 1846".
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New logo: Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University

The Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in French, abbreviated UVSQ) is a university with 18,000 students located in Versailles, about 20 kilometres from the French capital. Last week, on September 29, it launched a new visual identity, created by Dragon Rouge.

Previous logo.

The previous logo was hard to read and not really suited for web use, which had lead to the use of a separate logo for the web.

The new look introduces heraldry to the twenty-year-old university through the use of a coat of arms, with a sun representing radiating knowledge. The two colours are carried over from the previous logo, with blue symbolising knowledge and research, and green representing sustainable development, among other things.

The new logo for this young university exploits several Western university clichés. Not only does it introduce a new coat of arms, the name is written with Trajan and Gotham. Trajan is something of a default typeface for academia, and some designers would consider the use of Trajan in university logos uninspired and generic. At the same time, this solution avoids the "other" trend in modern university logos, which is to create something based on the university's initials, a common approach in France today.

There is also a compact version of the logo where the logo-type has been included in the coat of arms. The sun-ray motif is also used as a background for various publication templates.
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New logo: Onet.pl

Onet.pl is a popular Polish web portal. Last week, it announced a new site design, which included an updated logo. Onet worked with the Polish branch of Dragon Rouge to develop the new look.

The previous logo had been used by the portal for over a decade. The new logo is lighter and drops the "pl" part, but keeps the dot. The colour of the dot now changes depending on what section of the site one visits. The site also features decorations made up of multi-coloured dots, represting the variety of content found on the site.

Previous logo.

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New logo: Ahlstrom

Companies who work with pulp and paper rarely use those words to describe themselves. One such company is the Finnish Ahlstrom which calls itself as a "high performance materials company". Ahlstrom revealed a new brand identity on February 28.

The new identity was created by the London office of Dragon Rouge.

The previous logo was adopted a decade ago, most likely in 2001. It contained an clever icon which was a stylised version of a tree. That identity was created by (archive) the Helsinki agency Porkka & Kuutsa. This was based on an earlier logo which contained an actual silhouette of a tree.
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New logo: Marc Dorcel

Marc Dorcel is a French "adult entertainment" company. A while ago, it launched a new logo, created by Dragon Rouge. The taglinge says "Lust since 1979". The old logo was an image of a toucan.
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