New logo: Serla

Serla is a Finnish brand for hygiene tissue, such as paper towels and toilet paper, owned by a company called MetsäTissue. Over time it has been extended to Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Baltic states. This year, Serla introduced a refreshed brand identity along with new more environmentally friendly packaging and improved paper quality.

The new packaging is designed to improve shelf navigation and introduces a simpler logo that gives up the leaf texture of its predecessor. The "Serla squirrel" that is the brand's mascot still takes a prominent spot on the packaging.
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New logo: University of the Arts Helsinki

The University of the Arts Helsinki (known in Finnish as Taideyliopisto) is a new arts education institution in the Finnish capital, due to begin next year when three well-respected academies are merged; the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, the Sibelius Academy and the Theatre Academy Helsinki. Its visual identity was revealed yesterday, November 27, and created by Finnish design studio Bond.

The names of the three academies that make up the new university are to be retained. They will be linked together through an X symbol and irregular three-dimensional wordmarks. My Finnish isn't great, but I've gathered that the X icon is intended to act as a starting point and a meeting place for discussions about the arts and art education.
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New logo: Ava

Ava is a Finnish TV channel from Finland's largest commercial broadcaster MTV3 that airs women-oriented programmes. Originally launched in 2008 as a pay channel, it has developed into a free national channel. Recently, it launched a new look, developed in-house at MTV3 by art director Virpi Kunttu.

Viewer participation is an important part of the new look. Pictures and comments can be sent to Ava's website and are then incorporated into the on-screen graphics. There are also logo contests held that allow viewers to send in their own designs to replace the channel logo for a week.

The official logo has been turned into a sketchy doodle. Other parts of the on-screen graphics are beige and minimalist.
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New logo: Radio Rock

Radio Rock is a Finnish radio network, that was launched in January 2007 and plays, well, rock music. Yesterday, May 21, the network launched a new visual identity intended to reflect the changing attitudes of the rock music audience. In addition to the logo pictured above, Radio Rock has also adopted an icon where the two Rs are standing shoulder-to-shoulder, which looks a bit like a skull.

The Finnish agency 358 are responsible for the new look. They previously helped rebrand Radio Rock's sister network Radio Aalto.
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More on: YLE

The new corporate identity revealed by Finland's state broadcaster YLE back in December made its debut on-screen last week, with new looks across YLE's services on March 5. Incidentally, its Swedish counterpart SVT changed its look on the same day.

The change meant that the existing logos used by different services were replaced by YLE's new corporate logo, with the service name written next to it in a new corporate typeface.
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New logo: Metsä

Metsäliitto, meaning "Forest Union", a Finnish forestry group, founded in 1947. Yesterday, February 9, it announced it had shortened its name to Metsä as part of a corporate restructuring. The company's subsidiaries, many of which had been branded independently, will now all use "Metsä" in their names. The entire corporation is also adopting a green moose symbol. The typeface used in the logos is Benton Sans Black.Read more »

New logo: YLE

YLE (an abbrevation of Yleisradio, meaning "Broadcasting") is Finland's national broadcaster. Yesterday, December 19, YLE revealed a new corporate identity, scheduled for launch in March 2012. The stated reason for this is "to help the Finns find and recognise YLE content". It is also said to be "a way to get closer to the Finns".

The new logo consists of a square with rounded corners and "YLE" written in lowercase with fashionable typeface. The colour is said to be a combination of the blue and green from the previous logo, but YLE also acknowledges that the new colour is "clearer and fresher" than the previous.

Most of the work on the new identity was done in-house at YLE, by a team lead by Tuire Nuolivirta. New typefaces were developed by Finnish typographer Saku Heinänen. The work is rooted in YLE's core values - Finnishness, reliablity, versatility, independence and respect for the human being.

YLE's TV channels will also launch new identites when the new corporate logo goes live in March. Much of the identity work isn't finished yet, so expect more news on this next year.
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New look: Provena

Provena is a brand for gluten-free products owned by the Finnish Raisio Group. Originally conceived for the domestic Finnish market, Raisio later saw potential to launch the brand in its international markets, such as Sweden and the Baltics. With this international expansion in mind, Provena launched a new look a few weeks ago, with an all-English language packaging design.

The new look was launched in the week of September 1 in Finland, as well as in Sweden, where several products previously using the "Carlshamn Bageri" name are now sold under the Provena brand.

Previous logo.

The packaging is prominently touting its gluten free aspect with "Gluten Free" written with swirling script at the center of all new packaging. Some examples of the previous and the new packaging can be seen below.
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New logo: SATS (fitness clubs)

Sats is a chain of fitness clubs (gyms) in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland). At the beginning of this year, it started implementing in a new corporate identity across the company. Behind the new look was the Swedish brand agency Essen.

While the previous identity was well-known, it was felt that it wasn't energetic or flexible enough. The new identity builds on the visual equities of the predecessor, infusing energy and flexiblity to create a consistent visual language that reflects the company's culture.

A few glimpses of the new look could be seen last year in Norway, with a full scale rebrand starting in early January.

Previous logo.

The previous logo was an orange rhombus with the name in the middle, with dots between the letters as if SATS was an acronym (which it may have been at some point).

The new updated wordmark leans forward to "express more energy". It can be used both with the rhombus and by itself. There is also a rasterized version of the wordmark, and the rhombus shape can be used on its own as a graphical element.

The new rhombus logo.

Essen also created new colours, a typographic solution and a bunch of sports-related pictograms.
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New logo: SuomiTV

Yesterday, August 15, the Finnish TV channel SuomiTV launched a new look. SoumiTV (Soumi meaning "Finland") has had problems attracting viewers and advertisers, and were forced to close down their news department earlier this year. The new look is part of a relaunched schedule, where the main attraction has been the return of Conan O'Brien's talk show to the Finnish airwaves.

The previous identity had been used since the channel launched in 2009, and was created by Addiction London.
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New logo: Proffice

Proffice is a human resources solutions company in the Nordic countries. Originally a Swedish company, it was founded in 1960. In the late 1990s in expanded to Norway, Denmark and Finland through aquisitions and new establishments.

On April 4, Proffice launched a new strategic agenda to create a more united concern, intending to radically increase turnover. This strategy included a new brand strategy and corporate identity. This agenda includes strengthening the company's specialist brand Dfind. Some business areas involving specialists that used to be Proffice-branded now use the Dfind name.

New Dfind logo.

Proffice and Dfind have both been given new and consistent logos. I don't have any source for this, but I would guess the blue and yellow pieces represent the missing links that Proffice provides to an organisation.

Previous Proffice logo.

The previous Proffice identity had been used for a relatively long time, since at least the 1990s.
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New logo: TeliaSonera

This article was originally published on May 12, but seems to have moved to May 17 after the Blogger crash.

Today, May 12, TeliaSonera, the incumbent telecommunication company in Sweden and Finland, launched of a new corporate identity. The identity was created by Landor. It has been used in several Eurasian markets since 2009, but this brings the identity to the corporate level and implements it on consumers brands in the Nordic and Baltic coutries.

The new identity has purple as its signature colour. It should be modern, warm and lively. It also distinguishes TeliaSonera from other mutlinational telecom corporations. The new mark is a pebble with white lines, a symbol for "trust, reliability and strength".

TeliaSonera was formed in 2002 from the merger of Telia from Sweden and Sonera from Finland. Both companies where created around 1993 when former government monopolies where turned into limited companies (Sonera was known as Telecom Finland in its early years). The governments of Sweden and Finland still maintain high ownership stakes in the companies.

Previous logo.

When the companies merged in 2002, a simple wordmark was created as a corporate logo. All consumer-facing brands maintained their previous looks and identities without any reference to the parent company.

The new corporate identity means most brand logos are replaced by generic ones with the new symbol, although the individual names will remain.

The new look was launched for several of the company's assets in the Nordics and the Baltics simulatenously with the corporate brand. Many assets in emerging markets outside those areas have already used the new symbol for some time. TeliaSonera claims it to be 18 different brands that have united under one common identity.

The following brands got the new look today

Telia in Sweden and Denmark
Sonera in Finland
Netcom (Norway)
NextGenTel (Norway)
EMT (Estonia)
Elion (Estonia)
Omnitel (Lithuania)

The following markets introduced the new look during 2009 and 2010:

• Kcell, Kazakhstan (April 2009)
• Geocell, Georgia (May 2009)
• Ncell, Nepal, rebranded on March 12, 2010, was known as Mero Mobil before that
• Tcell, Tajikistan (March 2010)
• Moldcell, Moldova (April 28, 2010)
• Azercell, Azerbaijan, rebranded on May 14, 2010

Finally, there's Ucell in Uzbekistan, who will get the new look in June.

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New logo: Stora Enso

Stora Enso is a Finnish pulp and paper company, formed in 1998 when the Swedish forestry and mining company Stora was bought the Finnish forestry company Enso. On April 20, it revealed its first new corporate identity since the merger.

The rebrand is a part of a corporate inititive called "Rethink", which went public with the new logo. The basic idea is to challenge old ways of doing things and finding new solutions inside the company and amongs its stakeholders and costumers - in short "rethinking". The company has also rethought the annual report, which has been replaced by a "Rethink Report", released with the rest of the Rethink stuff.

Suitably, the word "rethink" is at the center of the new company symbol which is "inspired by the petalless flower of the eucalyptus tree".

The new logo has been created by the Helsinki creative agency N2's Canadian-born creative director Brian Kaszonyi. A study of StoraEnso's corporate image was done by Kuulas MillwardBrown.

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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