New logo: Lyons Cakes

Lyons is a British brand for cakes and biscuits that traces its roots to a chain of tea shops, first opened in 1894. Today, it is one of those unfortunate classic brands that are shared between two companies, with the cake brand owned by Premier Foods, while Lyons biscuits are made by Burton's Biscuit Company. The two companies used somewhat similar, but different, designs until recently, when a completely new look for Lyons cakes was unveiled, created by JKR. They were also behind a new design for Mr. Kipling, another cake brand owned by Premier Foods.

JKR delved into Lyons' heritage and created a design that reconnects to it. The waitresses from that worked in the old tea shops have been resurrected and are now present in the logo, which is put on top of single-colour "sleeves" that take up most of the packaging.

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: European Broadcasting Union

The European Broadcasting Union, EBU, is a federation of broadcasting organisations from Europe and its surroundings. Its members include virtually all government-controlled broadcasters and some private broadcasters with a public service legacy in the region. Best, or perhaps only, known by the public for organising the annual Eurovision Song Contest, it also arranges other events and provides technical services and an extensive news gathering cooperation.

Last week at its 68th General Assembly, the EBU launched a new corporate identity, which seems to replace the symbol it has used until now with a simple logo consisting of nothing but the initials in plain Gotham. It is supported a by a blue and pink colour scheme and some shaded circles.

Although nothing exciting, one should consider that European confederations of quasi-governmental institutions like the EBU can rarely agree on visual identities that aren't either terrible och bland. Also worth noting is that the French abbreviation, UER, has finally been removed from the logo.

New logo: Discovery HD Showcase

Discovery HD Showcase is a brand name used for channels from Discovery Networks available in several European countries that provide a selection of programmes particularly suited for watching in high-definition. The channels were first launched as Discovery HD starting in 2006, and got their current names in early 2010.

This month the channel adopted a new look and a new logo. The two-row logo has been re-arranged, moving "HD" to the upper row, shifting attention to the word "Showcase". The previously flat logo has been given a transparent, seamingly gelatinous, 3D treatment.

New logos: Film Café and Film Mania

A part of Liberty Global, which was mentioned here yesterday, Chello is a European media company that operates cable channels in several European markets, including Central Europe, Spain and the UK. This week it announced that two of its channels in Hungary would be given new names.

Filmmúzeum is a Hungarian classic movie channel that will be replaced by Film Mania, featuring more recent films from the 1990s and 2000s. Zone Romantica, a channel targeting women, will be renamed Film Café.

Danish motion design studio Frame is credited for creating the new identities for the channels that launch on July 2.

New logo: Style

The Style Network is an American cable network dedicated to fashion and design. Originally launched in 1999 as an off-shoot from the E! network, today it is now part of NBCUniversal and is distributed to many parts of the world. Yesterday, June 20, Style unveiled a new visual identity that will replace the circle it is using at the moment.

The new logo is described as a "strong, classic midnight blue typeface word Style accented by a splash of light blue". It shows some typographic curiosity, as the period after the name is repeated at the beginning as part of the S. It also appears the logo is a dynamic one ("mutable", as the network puts it), meaning it can take on different patterns and colors.

The conception of the new identity is described as a collaborative process, where the in-house creative director Bear Fisher gets a special credit. The new look launches on Monday, June 25, in the United States both on-air and on the website. It will start rolling out to other countries later this year, with a scheduled start in November.

New logo: Liberty Global

Liberty Global is a major international broadband and cable TV provider that has a strong position in several countries through subsidiaries like the UPC companies i several European countries, Unitymedia in Germany and VTR in Chile. This week, on June 19, it announced a new corporate identity.

Liberty Global now adopts the "bloom" symbol that was originally created for UPC in 2007, and adopted by Unitymedia in late March. The corporate version is however drained of its colors. This rebrand also seems to make the Liberty Global name more present around the company.