New logo: Poczta Polska

Poczta Polska is the postal service in Poland, founded way back in 1558. Yesterday, January 22, it unveiled a new corporate identity as part of a modernisation process.

Until now, the Polish postal service has used a traditional post horn as part of an outdated and inconsistent visual identity. It has been replaced by a a new symbol that is an abstraction of the old post horn, and the colours have switched to red and yellow.

New look: Kasztelan

Kasztelan is a Polish pilsner brand that has been brewed since way back in the early 1970s. Today, it is a part of the Carlsberg Group. Polish design agency Studio DN Design Group have been responsible for the brand packaging and labels since 2006. In that time, the design has received slight incremental updates. Another such update was revealed recently and can be seen above.

The aim of these redesigns have been to transform Kasztelan from a regional brand into a national one.

New logo: Polish Council of Shopping Centres

The Polish Council of Shopping Centres (or Polska Rada Centrów Handlowych, PRCH, in Polish) is an association of retail real estate owners in Poland. Last week, it launched a new logo, created by Diagram Brand Design.

The new mark is "filled with new symbolism", representing both an architectural plan and the shopping center's role as a new place for trade in a city.

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.

New logo: PZU

PZU, or Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń, is a major Polish insurance group with a long history, claiming 1803 as its foundation year. Yesterday, May 10, it unveiled a new corporate identity that is said to reflect modernisation within the company. The new logo launches tomorrow, May 12, and will then be gradually introduced in corporate communication and PZU's many branch offices.

The new logo is said to be a return to the historical circular mark, which the company says was introduced in 1952 and used until the 1990s, but it also symbolises "the simplification of procedures, care for the costumer and a modern approach". A framing device to be used in advertising has been created by cutting two brackets from the blue ring.

New logo: National Museum in Warsaw

The National Museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland with a significant art collection, has held a contest to create a new visual identity. The result was announced last week, and the contest was won by Antonina Benedek and Rafał Benedek from a design studio called MesmerCenter. The final stage of the competition involved two other agencies, Mamastudio and Parastudio.

Based on the museum's very ligature-friendly abbreviation, MNW, MesmerCenter created a dynamic geometric mark, that is apparently inspired by the museum's main building.

New logo: Poznań Airport

Poznań-Ławica Airport is an airport located in Poznań, Poland's fifth largest city, and one of its oldest. Yesterday, it unveiled a new logo.

The logo was created at an agency called Diagram Branding Design and is inspired by the star in Poznań's city logo, but also resembles and airplane and the letter L. The blue colour also comes from Poznań's logo, as is contrasted with a vibrant amaranth.

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.

New logo: Biedronka

Biedronka (which is Polish for "ladybug") is a large Polish discount store chain with close to 1,000 stores. It introduced a refreshed logo recently, created by an agency called Duda Polska and launched this week with a campaign.

The new logo retains most elements from the previous logo - the rounded frame, the colour scheme, the ladybug and the slogan "Low Prices Everyday" - but gives them a much needed update. In commercials and advertising, the ladybug appears as a animated mascot.

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".

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".

New logo: nPremium

The Polish satellite TV platform N is launching four premium movie channels on December 15, after securing important content deals. The channels will be called nPremium and are replacing two existing movie channels called nFilm.

The visual identity, unveiled yesterday, was created by the Polish design agency Mamastudio, with on-air animation from a studio called Televisor.

On screen, the colourful logo will be animated. For example it will fold up into a smaller version when used as a screen bug.

New logo: Dr Gerard

Dr Gerard is a Polish brand for sweet biscuits. At the beginning of the year, it launched a modernised visual identity, created by Studio Projektowe IKAR in Warsaw.

The new logo is not only heart-shaped, it also contains a subtle "satisfied" smile. The golden outline is intended to emphasize the heart and add a premium character. The script wordmark was crafted specifically for this logo, "reflecting the care with which the company's products are prepared".

The company behind the brand is now also called Dr Gerard, but was known as Lider'S-KG until it took the name of its primary brand earlier this year. It is currently a part of the French Groupe Poult.

The new design was first introduced around January-February. Studio IKAR took credit for the design in April, and Polish trade media reported on the changes in May. The first product to receive the new design was "PryncyPałki", wafer sticks with dark chocolate cover, one of the company's most popular products.

New look: Krakuski

New logo.

Krakuski is a Polish brand for a variety of sweet biscuits, owned by the German food group Bahlsen, which has activities in many European countries. It is a relatively young brand, introduced in 2004 for products that were previously sold under the name "Lajkonik". This summer, it launched a new design.

The previous design was created by Dragon Rouge and launched in 2007. It involved a redesigned logo and added some characteristic Krakow buildings as well as a yellow background colour representing "well-baked biscuits".

The 2011 redesign adds a friendly good-natured neighbourhood baker to the logo, which now look somewhat like the curled corner of a paper sheet. The packaging has been redesigned to give distinct looks to different product segments, helping consumers navigate among the many varieties.

The new look has been around at least since June this year. An article published then credits the new logo and packaging to a studio called Well-Rounded Design (which doesn't seem to have a proper website).

New logo: Mola and Tento

Tento and Mola are two consumer brands for "hygiene tissue" (paper towels, toilet paper and handkerchiefs) sold in Central Europe and owned by the Finnish hygiene paper company MetsäTissue. Mola is used in Poland and Russia, while Tento can be found in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Some months ago, probably during the summer, both introduced a new look.

During the last couple of years, the two brands have used a common packaging design and similar logos with a daisy flower sprouting up behind the wordmark. The daisy has been Mola's symbol for several years, and its last iteration was adopted in 2008. Tento adopted the daisy in 2009 when it aligned itself with Mola's branding. Before this, the two names had independent brand designs.

This latest rebrand ties Tento and Mola closer to the brand platform used by the similar Serla brand in the Nordic countries. The creepy squirrels that signify Serla are now also used by Tento and Mola on packaging and in advertising. Although they haven't adopted Serla's leaf logo, the updated logos feature a leaf-like background plate.

New logos: Polish Canal+ channels

Back in May, the French Canal+ group rebranded most of its thematic TV channels to link them together by adding a '+' to their names and adopting a coherent logo design. Canal+ also has a Polish branch, Canal+ Cyfrowy, and it announced in September that it was going to follow suit and rebrand its thematic channels as well, giving them similar logos and adding a '+' sign to their names.

It is not uncommon for Canal+ Cyfrowy to borrow business practices from its French counterpart, not least when it comes to branding. A brand decision made in France is often implemented by the Polish branch some months later.

The kids channel Teletoon+ (previously called ZigZap) was rebranded on October 1. The other channels are Ale Kino! (movies), Planete (documentaries), Kuchnia.tv (food), Domo (home and garden), MiniMini (programmes for younger children) and Hyper (anime and video games), and they will all rebrand on November 11. At the same time, the channels will start broadcasting in high-defintion.

The new channel identities borrow elements from the French counterparts to varying degrees. Planete+ and Teletoon+ are essentially adapting logos and graphics designed for France, while Ale Kino+, Kuchnia+, Domo+ and Hyper+ are unique to the Polish market, and stand out somewhat by keeping the typeface from their previous logos instead of adopting the corporate Canal+ typeface.

Some examples of on-screen graphics and all the old and new logos after the jump.

New logo: Dolny Śląsk

Last week, on September 28, a new tourism logo was unveiled for the Polish province Lower Silesia (known as Dolny Śląsk in Polish).

The logo was selected through a competition that attracted 200 submissions. Four finalists were selected for public consultation (online voting). The winning suggestion includes three squares, representing different kinds of tourism.

The three other finalists can be seen below:

New logo: Manta Multimedia

Manta Multimedia, a Polish manufacturer of consumer electronics, unveiled a new logo on Thursday, September 29.

Just like its predecessor, the new logo includes a manta ray, although the new version is a bit more obvious. According to a press release, it should represent "modernity and technological advancement".

Previous logo.

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.

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.