New logo: Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital and second largest city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the seventh largest city in all of Germany. Yesterday, Düsseldorf's mayor presented the above mark that will be used to market and represent the city. Reports say it will be supplementary and that existing city logos will remain in use.

The new symbol is recognised around the world as a happy emoticon, that is produced a colon and the letter D. That letter also happens to be the first letter in Düsseldorf. It was created by BBDO who were selected out of 66 agencies, five of which where allowed to put forth proposals to the mayor.
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New logo: Dallas

The Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau unveiled a new logo on Friday. This clear and modern wordmark with a star included in the D will be used to market one of the major cities in the Lone Star State to tourists. The logo comes with a new tagline, "Big Things Happen Here".

The new logo replaces a brush wordmark and the tagline "Live Large. Think Big.", introduced in 2004. Local press credits local brand consultancy TracyLocke as having a leading role in the development of the new brand and message.
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New logo: Bilbao Bizkaia

Bilbao is the tenth-largest city in Spain, and the largest city in the Basque Country and the capital of the Biscay province in northern Spain. Most of us are probably most familiar with its Guggenheim Museum. Last week, a new mark was unveiled that will market Bilbao and the province of Biscay (known as Bizkaia in Basque) internationally.

The new mark was selected through a contest organised by the Bizkaia Provincial Council and the Bilbao Town. Out of 84 submissions, ten were selected by a jury and put on display for the public to assess and vote for them. The jury then made the final decision and unveiled it last Friday, September 21.

The winning entry was created by Ros y Etcétera, who were paid €30,000 for their effort.

The ten finalists can be seen below. As you'll discover, there was a generally quite high standard for a logo competition.
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New logo: Charente

Charente is a department located in Poitou-Charentes in central western France. This week, its general council unveiled a new visual identity.

The old 1980s logo featured a map of the department, a radiating sun in the middle and a yellow sunbeam below. It has been replaced by a much simpler and a far more contemporary wordmark, that simply says "Charente - Le Département" in brown colours, maroon for "Charente" and ochre brown for "Le Département".

The department has previously been using a cute promotional symbol with the message La Charente a des ailes ! ("Charente has wings!"), and it has been preserved and incorporated into the new look.
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New logo: Odessa

Odessa is a the third largest city in Ukraine, located in the south of the country at the shore of the Black Sea. Last week, on June 6, the city opened a "Tourist Information Center" and also introduced a new tourism logo.

Created by Art. Lebedev Studio, the new symbol is a combination on an anchor and a heart shape. You may also imagine a lighthouse and some waves in it. As usual, the studio has developed and elaborate set of guidelines and applications that bring the new identity to life.
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New logo: Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs, the second largest city in Colorado, unveiled a new logo on Monday, April 2. The logo was developed by a local design firm called Fixer Creative on the behalf on a "Community Branding Task Force", headed by the convention and visitors bureau.

The task force had unveiled a new logo back in November, developed through focus groups and research. It also included a new tagline, "Live it up!", a reference to the city's high altitude and big plans. But the logo was (rightly) rejected by the community, and the protests caused the task force to announce a new logo process the following month.

The new symbol combines the C symbol from Colorado's state flag with the Pikes Peak, located near the city. The "Live it up!" slogan is no longer a permanent part of the logo, rather it is a "temporary marketing slogan". The symbol is supported by fresh and very contemporary typography, using both Pragmatica Slabserif and Verlag.
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New logo: Kiev

Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine, has held a contest to select a new logo. After a public appeal, ten entries were selected and put up to an online vote between February 6 and March 6. The entry that got the most votes can bee seen above and features four blobs in different colours, all representing different aspects of the city:

• A blue drop for the Dnieper River, which runs through the city
• A green chestnut for Kiev's parks
• A yellow dome for the temples
• A red heart characterising Kiev as a city where there is love and goodness. It also resembles the wings of Michael the Archangel, who is depicted in the city's coat of arms.

Is also included a slogan, which translates as "The city where it all starts". The logo was created by the marketing company fedoriv.com and a design bureau called Karandash.

Unlike many other online logo contests, voters were treated with a large amount of images, explaining the logo and showing applications. You can still see them on the logo voting page at http://newlogo.kiev.ua/. The other entries, and a selection of images from the winner are presented below. A design process montage can be found here.
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New logo: Nîmes Métropole

Nîmes Métropole is an "agglomeration community", a French inter-municipal government structure, made up of Nîmes, the country's 20th largest city, and its surroundings. Recently, reportedly on January 1, it introduced a new logo to mark the tenth anniversary of its formation. The previous logo featured squares in different colours, symbolizing administrative areas coming together. In the new logo, the squares have been replaced by a circle, still divided into different areas.
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New logo: Łódź

Łódź is Poland's third largest city. Last week, on December 6, it unveiled a new logo at a ceremony.

The logo is credited to one Justyna Żychalska and was selected through a compeititon. It features four letters inspired by the geometric alphabet created by avant-garde painter Władysław Strzemiński, who worked and is buried in Łódź. The new slogan Łódź kreuje, "Łódź creates", is included in the logo.

According to the mayor the new logo "strongly identifies the city with artistic achievements, without which there would be no modern art".
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New logo: Ludwigshafen

The city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein in south-western Germany, with about 165,000 inhabitants, unveiled a new logo yesterday, November 21. Featuring a blue winking emoticon, it was developed by a local agency called Cyperfection.

The logo is part of a new brand platform that relies on likeability and self-confidence. The logo itself was required to be modern, confident, inclusive, and functional. The symbol is not only a friendly emoticon, the blue colour represents the city's location on the Rhine, as well as the letters L and U, a common abbrevation of the city name.

This replaces and older logo featuring a coat of arms.
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New logo: Cobb County

Last Thursday, November 10, the Convention and Visitors Bureau in Cobb County, Georgia, changed its name to "Cobb Travel and Tourism". It also introduced a new tagline, "Atlanta's sweet spot", and a logo with a literal interpretation of that spot. The CVB president claims the previous logo hadn't changed for "at least 20 years".
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New logo: Minneapolis

Yesterday, October 27, the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota launched its new tourism logo and tagline at a public event. This is part of a program that seeks to attract more tourism. "The City of Lakes" will now market itself as "City by Nature", touting the many parks in the city. The logo also reflects this, showing four Minneapolis landmarks reflected in water as trees.

The state of Minnesota is also in the process launching new brand identity, hoping to communicate that it is more than a cold place with nice people.
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New logo: Kortrijk

Yesterday, September 28, the city of Kortrijk in West Flanders, Belgium, unveiled a new visual identity.

The design was reportedly mostly done in-house. The logo is credited to a graphic designer named Yves Debaes. The new logo reflects the changes the city has gone through in recent years. Its shape represents houses, as the city "stands like a house" (a figure of speech meaning something is solid). Red has traditionally been Kortrijk's colour and is used in the new logo as well.

With a population of 75,000, Kortrijk is one of the twenty most populated cities in Belgium.

Previous logo.

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New logo: Tyler, Texas (tourism)

The City of Tyler in Texas, with about 97,000 inhabitants, is often called the "Rose Capital". When the Tyler Conventions & Visitors Bureau unveiled a new tourism logo for the city on Tuesday, August 30, it naturally featured a large red rose.

The previous logo was reportedly introduced in 1996 and also featured a rose, although that one was yellow. It also included a swirling wordmark.
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New logo: St Pete Clearwater

Pinellas County is county in Florida which is a part of what is called the Tampa Bay Area. The county is marketed by an official tourism marketing organization called St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. It is named after the two largest cities in the county, and those two names are also used when marketing the county. Late January this year, a new identity was launched for the area, created by a team at Pentagram in New York.

Previous logo.

The previous identity was launched around October 2007 when the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Convention and Visitors Bureau changed its brand name to Visit St. Pete Clearwater.

Choosing from several possible symbols, Pentagram's Michael Bierut and Joe Marianek settled on a round symbol with swirls that can represent "breaking waves and bright sun" as well as the initials S, P and C. This is combined with the Mr Eaves typeface.

Visit St. Pete Clearwater first published the new identity on their Facebook page on January 27, announcing a bus ad campaign that would start in New York City that same weekend. Pentagram tweeted about this on January 28, publishing a case study on March 11. The official Visit St. Pete Clearwater site wasn't updated until several months after the new logo first appeared.
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New logo: Zurich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland. Last Thursday, on July 14, a new common brand identity was unveiled which will by used the canton of Zurich, the city of Zurich and the Zurich tourism authority. Included in the identity is a new slogan, "World Class. Swiss Made." and a new logo, which was designed by the Swiss agency Valencia Kommunikation.

The new logo marks a "commitment" by the three parties to develop integrated location and destination marketing for Zurich. The tagline should express "The commitment to the highest standards, Swiss quality and reliability".

The logo comes in two variants, one with a Swiss cross for "general purposes", and one with the "Goldblume", the Swiss tourism emblem. The blue colour is said to be associated with Zurich.

The previous tourism logo included the tagline "Downtown Switzerland" which had allegedly been used for over ten years.

Zürism Tourismus is already using the new logo on their website. A more serious marketing effort is planned for September, and will include ads on CNN International.
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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: Region Stuttgart

This week, on June 28, a new logo was presented that will market Region Stuttgart, consisting of Germany's sixth-largest city and the municipalities around it, an area with about 2,7 million inhabitants. It was created by the Hamburg-based agency Mutabor.

The rejected 2010 logo.

There was an attempt to introduce a new tourism logo for Region Stuttgart last year. It consisted of several colourful lines that made up a star inspired by the shape of the region and was created by the Berlin agency Embassy. After it was revealed in July 2010, it faced heavy criticism from the local design community, the logo was withdrawn and a new one was commissioned.

Perhaps influenced by the failure of the last logo, this new one is very much a "dialogue logo", as if it was selected to tell critics that their complaints had been listened to. The symbol is in fact referred to as the "dialogue S". Taking inspiration from the first letter in Stuttgart, the mark consists of two speech bubbles, perhaps one responding to the other. One can also see a reference to German quotation marks. Included in the logo is the tagline "Spricht für sich", which means "Speaks for itself", expressing confidence.

Although the example shown above is yellow, the new logo can also be light blue, orange, green or purple. On German brand design blogs like Design Tagebuch and Designlovr you can see several examples of identity application that show the versatility of the new logo.

The logo was selected through a tender involving 200 agencies, of which 10 were selected to pitch. The jury included people who had critised the previous logo.
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New logo: Newcastle, Australia

The Australian city of Newcastle is the second largest city in the state of New South Wales. On June 2, the Newcastle City Council unveiled a new logo which will be used to promote the city. Newcastle has a reputation of being a city of just steel mills and coal mines, and the new colourful logo tries to get rid of that reputation.

The new logo will be used in promotion to both business and tourists and well as the general public. The colours represent different industries, both old and new, and there are also colour variants of the logo to be used by specific industries. Together the colour combinations tell the story of Newcastle today and tomorrow.

The new look was created by the Newcastle agency Peach.
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