New logo: Russkiy Illusion

Russkiy Illusion (Русский иллюзион in Russian) is a Russian thematic television channel dedicated to classic and contemporary Russian cinema. This week, reportedly on September 1, it launched a new look with a new look.

The on-air graphics and idents celebrate Russian cinema and culture and the "warm and good" movies that are shown on the channel. The graphics also feature ornaments from traditional Russian folk art, and one of those ornaments made it into the logo.

New logo: Mikhailov and Partners

Mikhailov and Partners (Михайлов и Партнеры in Russian) is a Russian communication consultancy. Last week, on August 30, it launched a new corporate identity, created by the consultancy VMKR.

This is another take on the flexible identities that are popular at the moment. VMKR's solution takes five colours (yellow, orange, pale blue, purple and coral) that can be blended and re-arranged into different objects inside a hexagon. At the moment, there are six such images that should convey "wisdom, strength, success, reliability, conviction, and commitment to development and growth".

The bright colours also appear in other visual devices and are contrasted with greyscale imagery.

New logo: Love Radio

Love Radio is a Russian radio network available around Russia, broadcasting a mix of Soft AC and hit music. Recently, it unveiled an updated logo ahead of a large advertising campaign. The new logo was reportedly developed in house.

New logo: Oberezhe

Yarmolprod is a Russian dairy company, located in Yaroslavl close to the Moscow region. Recently, it unveiled a new mid-range milk brand called Oberezhe (Обережье), designed by Moscow agency Wellhead Branding & Consulting.

The visual identity uses traditionality design cues, with a logo insired by old Slavic lettering, an О carved out of wood and table cloths with traditional embroidery.

New logo: Kuhnya TV

Kuhnya TV (Кухня ТВ) is a minor Russian thematic channel dedicated to food. On August 1, it launched a new logo

The old logo featured a very literal tea pot, and the new one is obviously an abstraction of that object in a bright orange colour. The channel says it is designed to "charge the audience with energy and positive emotions".

New logo: Yu

Myz-TV (Муз ТВ in Russian) is a Russian music-based TV network available over the air around Russia. As a result of the diminishing interest in music channels, it was announced last week (on July 26) that Muz-TV would be replaced by a general youth entertainment network called Yu that takes over the series and reality shows currently seen on Muz-TV. The iconic brand will live on as a music-only cable channel.

The new channel name, Yu, which is written in Cyrillic as a single letter, Ю. Its pronounciation its close to the English word "you", at least if pronounced with a Russian accent, and that is probably the origin of the name. Its tagline, "Eto ty", also happens to mean "It's you". The rectangular logo seems to be used both in a variety of colours and as a window.

New logo: Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre

The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of Russia's oldest theatres, tracing its history back to the 1870s. In the 1950s, it was named after Pyotr Tchaikovsky (the full name in Russian is Пермский академический театр оперы и балета имени Петра Ильича Чайковского), and many of his works are played at the theatre. An image of Tchaikovsky was also used as in theatre's visual identity until this month, when a new identity gets introduced.

The new identity was unveiled on June 22, and was created by Russian designer Elena Kitayeva. It is a complete break with baroque and empire influences in the previous logo, and the opera house itself, for a modernist approach. It is centred around the letter O, for opera, which has the same meaning on both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The O has been split in two halves, and the theatre says this displacement has several meanings, all related to duality, conflict and confluence, such the border between Europe and Asia, opera and ballet or the old and the new.

More importantly, the split O is a versatile visual device where one of the halves can be filled with effects, patterns and images, including an image of Tchaikovsky or the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who is also associated with the opera. The identity comes with a wide colour range, although purple and olive seem to be the most commonly used in the available applications.

The logo-type uses Gill Sans Condensed, with the words in the name "Perm Opera Ballet Theatre" stacked on top of each other, in different sizes so that they'll have the same width. The O symbol and the logo-type can be locked up in a myriad of ways.

New logo: May

May Company (Компания «Май» in Russian) calls itself "Russia’s leading tea and coffee producer" and sells tea under the brands Maisky and Lisma. This month, on June 15, it unveiled a new corporate identity, created by Direct Design Visual Branding, a Russian branding agency. The company celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, and the new look should reflect that by symbolizing "maturity, brightness, vitality, simplicity and stability".

The logo combines custom-made letters for the word Май with an emphasized breve (the little wedge over the letter Й), representing "optimism and a postive attitude". The breve changes color depending on division, with burgundy used in the corporate logo. The logos are supported by a graphic device with ribbons in the colors of the company divisions.

New logo: Russ Outdoor

News Outdoor is the largest outdoor advertising company in Russia, taking its name from News Corporation, who onwed a majority stake until last year. As a result, it had to change its name, and on Friday, June 1, the company became Russ Outdoor.

Other than the namechange, the company strived not to change too much, keeping both the color blue. The new symbol is also somewhat spherical, much like its predecessor. The typeface has received a cosmetic update.

New logo: Rutube

Rutube is, as one might guess, a Russian website that allows users to post videos, very much built as "the Russian YouTube". A few years after its foundation it was bought by Russia's largest media group, the state-controlled Gazprom Media, and has thrived commercially under that ownership. This week, it unveiled a new logo that will launch in June.

Continuing its emulation of succesful American social websites, Rutube hired Cuban Council, the agency that came up with the logo for Facebook. And the result is arguably very similar, a simple wordmark set in humanist/geometric typeface. Except Rutube uses a red background colour where Facebook is using blue.

The typeface is custom-made and is called RuNew.

New logo: Moya Planeta

Moya Planeta (Моя планета, meaning "My Planet") is a Russian documentary channel owned the state TV company VGTRK, launched in 2009. Last week, on April 28, it launched a new on-air look, which is less artificial, employing different textures, such as a palm leaf, elephant skin and sand. The logo hasn't changed, but has a new treatment to fit the overalll design.

New logo: Novosibirskaya

Novosibirskaya is a Russian confectionary factory founded in 1942 in Novosibirsk. Today, it is part of "United Confectioners", Russia's largest confectionary group.

Last week, on April 9, it officially adopted a new logo, which is said to be more modern and dynamic. The bear from the previous logo, based on the cyrillic letter Н, has been made somewhat more realistic. The added ribbons symbolise "dynamic business development and forward movement".

New logo: Russian Venture Capital

Russian Venture Capital (RVC) is a Russian development fund, established by the Russian government in 2006. Last Friday, March 23, RVC unveiled a new corporate identity to reflect recent changes within the company, developed with Strategic Consulting Group, a London consultancy with many Russian clients.

The five triangles that point in different directions should communicate two ideas, "exporting Russian business ideas and the development of Russian business abroad" as well as international investments in Russia. The logo was apparently inspired by John Conway's Game of Life.

New logo: Suhovskij

Suhovskij (Суховский) is a Russian agricultural company, responsible for retail and wholesale trade of fruits and vegetables in its region in southwestern Siberia. A new identity for the company was recently unveiled, created by an agency in Novosibirsk called Reklamist.

The "kaleidoscopic" mark was inspired by the shapes of cut vegetables.

New look: Lactica

Lactica is a brand for milk from a dairy company in North-Western Russia. Last year, the brand was relaunched with a new package design to better reflect the natural product and its modern high-tech processing, as well as communicating health to follow current trends.

The new branding and packaging was handled by the Russian agency Getbrand. They created a new logo with two stylised checkmarks in different colours. The packaging is mostly white and features images of people that make the product seem relevant and modern, while communicating well-being.

New logo: Detskiy

Detskiy (Детский), essentially meaning "Children's", is a Russian TV channel for kids between 6 and 12, available on cable and satellite, providing a popular alternative to Western children's channels. It was launched in 2006 and belongs to a company called "Content Union", which also owns some movie channels.

On December 20, the channel launched a new look, with a new logo. The rebrand also brings five new characters, intended represents the interests of its viewers, including Smelchak ("daredevil") who loves adventure and sports and Ymnik ("Egghead") who is fascinated by science. The character, the new logo and other design elements take the form of stickers that are put on various surfaces in station IDs and graphics.

The redesign was entirely created in-house. The company's other channels will allegedly also be rebranded this year.

New logo: Baltimor

Baltimor is a major Russian ketchup brand. Its name doesn't have anything to do with Baltimore, Maryland, rather it is an abbreviation of the Russian name for the Baltic Sea, Baltiyskoe More. The company was founded in 1995 in Saint Petersburg, located by the Baltic Sea.

Since 2009, it has been owned by Unilever. This autumn (August, according to the company, November, according to other sources), Baltimor launched a new visual identity and packaging design for its many varieties.

Unilever hired Anthem Worldwide to design the new packaging. The mediocre logo has been straightened up, giving it some premium value. An additional field with an eagle, a tomato and the year of establishment has been added. The packaging has been updated and harmonised to bring it up to today's design standards.

New logo: Rosinterbank

Rosinterbank (РосинтерБанк in Russian), a Russian commercial bank founded in 1990, adopted a new corporate identity last week, on December 2.

The previous logo featured a cube and Russia's national colours. The rebrand introduces green as the dominant corporate colour, supplemented with grey. As its new symbol, the bank has chosen a wallet. A simple, tangible and somewhat underused symbol of money and banking. A companion that is always with you.

New look: Kommersant TV

The company behind the Russian business-oriented newspaper Kommersant launched a news channel back in October called Kommersant TV. In addition to being carried by some Russian TV distributors, the channel is streamed on the web for free. Its identity and on-screen graphics were developed by two British agencies, DixonBaxi and AllofUs. Intros and identity spots were produced by Double G Studios.

Unlike most news channels, Kommersant TV doesn't have any news reports or anchors. Instead, the broadcasts are made up of telegrams read by an out-of-vision newsreader with information screens showing text and images. This means the channel can easily be shown mute in public spaces. It can be compared to on-board TV channels available in some public transport systems, or updated teletext pages.

The way the channel is set up gives a sense of flow with seamless transition between intros, news stories, segments and ad breaks. The on-screen graphics are clean and modern.

The very simple logo consists of the letter Ъ in a square. This letter, also known as the hard sign or "tvjordyj znak", is the final letter in Kommersant (Коммерсантъ in cyrillic), which has always been emphasized in Kommersant's nameplate.

In addition to the intros and information graphics, there are also a number of unconventional and artistic identity spots, featuring milk being poured on an armchair, splattering black ink and pink colour thown on a sculpture. DixonBaxi has posted a 47 second sequence with the armchair and various objects.

New logo: Bolshoi Theatre

Last week, a new visual identity was unveiled for Moscow's historic Bolshoi Theatre. The new logo was developed by Art Lebedev Studio, and should formally launch at the end of this month, when the theatre opens after major renovations.

Founded in 1776, the Boshoi (Большой театр, meaning "The Great Theatre") is an important symbol for Russian high culture and is well-known around the world.

The previous logo was introduced a few years ago and is credited to Yuri Grymov. It had been the target of criticism from Russia's design community, among other things because it apparently featured decorations borrowed from a free image library.