New logo: KORA

KORA is a government institute that does analysis and research for the public sector in Denmark. It was formed on July 1 this year by merging three agencies, AKF, DSI og KREVI. Having used a provisional visual identity for its first three months in existence, it recently adopted an more permanent visual identity, created by Danish design agency Mega Design.

Mega Design's solution uses four squares that contain the letters that make up the agencies name. These can be arranged in many different ways, and these variations can also be linked together to form a pattern.
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New logo: Nord

Nord is the Nothernmost department in France, bordering Belgium. Recently, the general council of Nord started using a new logo, a simple gray block with the words "Nord - le département".

The previous logo was an 'N' symbol that was used with various bright colours. Although the 'N' was distinctive, the typography used for the wordmark wasn't that great, the last 'l' in général was particularly atrocious.
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New logo: Czech Statistical Office

Last week, the Czech Statistical Office (Český statistický úřad, ČSÚ, in Czech), a government organization that collects and analyzes statistical data in the Czech Republic, unveiled a new visual identity, which it will adopt on January 1.

The new identity was selected through a contest, arrenged with the Czech Union of Graphic Design, which should assure some standards. The winning entry was created by Jiří Toman, and selected because it was "visually and typographically clean, was easily identifiable and had the highest technical quality". The solution is a simple and clean bar graph motif, with the name written in Futura.



Previous logo.

 
According to the ČSÚ, the previous logo was introduced in 1994, and was now considered obsolete.

Logo variants.

The following identity application mock-ups, provided by the ČSÚ, show the versatility of the bar graph motif, used in all apllications.
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New logo: Swedish Polar Research Secretariat

The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, or Polarforskningssekretariatet in Swedish (28 letters!), is a government agency tasked with coordinating research and development in the polar regions. Last Thursday, September 29, it launched a new visual identity.

The new identity was created by Bror Rudi Creative, who got the assignment at the beginning of the year and were told to creative something clear and timeless. The team wanted to develop an identity that would work both within government and on polar expeditions, while communicating the agency's vision. They found inspiration in Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, a common and unique phenomenon for the two polar regions. Bror Rudi will continue providing graphic design services for the agency.

The following images were published by Bror Rudi:
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New logo: Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Yesterday, the government administration of the French community in Belgium unveiled a new logo as it is changing its name to Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. The namechange from "French Community of Belgium" to "Federation Wallonia-Brussels" was announced earlier this year, causing protests from Flemish nationalists as the Belgian capital Brussels is shared between the French and Flemish communities.

The new logo consists of a stylized interpretation of the initials W and B in red, yellow and blue. The offical colours for Wallonia are yellow and red, while they are blue and yellow for Brussels. Within the logo, red and blue represents the two regions, while the yellow "hyphen" represents some sort of unity ("our solidarity and the strength of our commitment").

Previous logo.

The previous logo included a rooster, a common symbol for Wallonia.

HLN.be
Nieuwsblad.be
RTLinfo
Fédération Wallonie-Brussels logo page
Culture.be

New logo: KRRiT

The Polish National Broadcasting Council, Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji (KRRiT), a government agency tasked with issuing broadcast licenses and regulating broadcasters, launched a new visual identity and website at the beginning of this week. The new logo, the abbreviation in a navy blue rectangle, is often accompanied by half-circles in four colours.

The new identity was created by the Poznań-based agency Ptasia30.

Previous logo.

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New logo: Conseil général du Jura

This week, on August 30, the general council (conseil général) of the Jura department in France launched a new visual identity. An intention is to create a more consistent brand image for the general council and its activities.

The new logo is modern calligraphic mark in a colour called "fuchsia pink", relying on the strength of the name "Jura", which is well known in France.

The previous logo was reportedly introduced over fifteen years ago, and clearly hadn't aged too well.

The following images were published on the general council website:
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eu2012.dk - Danish EU presidency logo

At the moment, Poland holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Next in line is Denmark, who are taking over on January 1. While Poland unveiled their presidency logo in May, Denmark announced their logo over a year before taking the presidency. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish Design Centre (DDC) arranged a contest to select the presidency logo, and the winner was presented on October 11, 2010.

The contest attracted 71 submissions from designers and graphic artists, and the winner was selected from seven finalists. The winning submission was created by Peter Jacob Møgelvang from Kunde&Co. A jury statement described it as "an aesthetic and creative typographic solution, which in its simplicity is a clear expression of Danish design tradition". The "half-digits" represent the Danish half year at the presidency, and rotating digit represents the rotating nature of the presidency.

Denmark last held the EU presidency in 2002, using the logo seen below:

The winner got 100.000 DKK (about €13.000 or $19.000). Two runner-ups where also presented:
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New logo: Ministerstwo Gospodarki

The Polish Ministry of Economy, Ministerstwo Gospodarki, has a new visual identity, as revealed on May 19 at a press conference. It was created over several months by the Warsaw agency Mamastudio and employees of the ministry. It intends to give the ministry a more modern look which represents it better internationally.

The main colour is called steel, which stands for tradition, strength and seriousness, while the complementary green colour stands for modernity, innovation and renewable energy.

Previous logo.

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New logo: PL2011.eu - Polish EU presidency

This article was originally published on May 12, but is re-published here as it was lost in the Blogger crash.

The European Union has two legislative bodies, one being the European Parliament which represents the peple, the other being the European Council which represents the national governments. Since it was created in the 1950s, the presidency of the council has rotated between the governments of different member states every six months. Over time, the counsil presidency has become a source of great pride and a chance to set the agenda for whoever is holding it.

Because of this, it has also become a tradition for the different governments to create a new logo to symbolize their presidency, tapping into the creative resources of the individual countries. This has lead to the creation of several interesting logos. With the plans to drastically reduce the significance of the presidency, and the introduction of a generic "ribbon" logo which was used by Spain, Belgium and Hungary during their presidencies, I somewhat assumed that this waste of taxpayer money was sadly coming to an end.

However, Poland seems to disagree, and yesterday they presented a new unique logo which will signify their presidency, which will start on July 1. It was very much inspired by the logo of Solidarność, the independent trade union which helped free Poland and Eastern Europe from communism. The designer behind it is also the same. Jerzy Janiszewski, who designed the Solidarność logo in 1980, has created a logo made up of six arrow head figures holding hands. One of the figures is holding a Polish flag, which is borrowed from the 1980 logo, as is the brush paint style.

The Solidarność logo

The values expressed in the logo are dynamics, postive energy and solidarity. It should also express that Poland is a young state, capable of initiating positive change in Europe.

Polish presidency (in Polish) (archive)
Facebook photo
EurActiv
PressEurop
Poland.pl

New logo: Danish Ministry of Education

The Danish Ministry of Education, Undervisningsministeriet, has launched a new identity. The new look was launched around the beginning of March, very likely on March 1 when the ministry was reorganised.

The new logo keeps the ministry's clever symbol, a Royal crown which includes an open book. It has been redrawn for clarity. It also has new typography.

Danish media reports about the new logo have mostly centered around the fact the logo doesn't include a hyphen after "Utbildnings", which is the common Danish syllabification. The point is slightly moot as the previous logo didn't have hyphen either, and that it is quite common to exclude hyphens in logotype.

The old identity was launched around the turn of the millenium.

Previous logo.

New logo: Conseil général de la Nièvre

France is divided into 100 departments, and each of them has an assembly called the general counsil (conseil général). One of the smaller departments is Nièvre, whose general counsil recently introduced a new logo.

The previous logo was a white "bolt" in the form of an N in a brown and green trapezium. The bolt idea is kept, but now it is orange and has a 3D effect. The typography is all-new.
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