New logo: LifeStyle Food

LifeStyle Food is an Australian specialty network dedicated to food, launched in 2004 as a spinoff from The LifeStyle Channel. Recently, probably at the beginning of July, it launched a new on-screen look. With it came a new circle logo to replace the one the channel had used in various forms since launch.

A series of dramatic and humorous idents have been created in-house, with audio from sound production studio Smith&Western.

New logo: Coinc

Last week, on July 24, the Spanish commercial bank Bankinter launched a new money management portal called Coinc. The new easy-to-use service is tailored to the under 35s and include functions that combine saving with social networks. The brand identity was developed by Saffron Design Consultants.

The name is a combination of the English word coin and oinc, the sound that Spanish pigs make, as pigs are a universal symbol for saving. The symbol for the new service is both a pig snout and a coin being put into a slot.

Dutch public radio (2011)

There were several public service broadcasters that unveiled new logo systems for their radio networks this spring. One such example that I somewhat missed was the Dutch public broadcasting system that introduced new logos for its radio networks last year.

The new logos use slanted squares, a shape that has been embraced by the Dutch public broadcasting system. These squares where originally adopted by the three TV channels back in 2003 and took inspiration from the De Stijl movement of the 1920s, specifically a famous painting by Theo van Doesburg. The current radio incarnations are however don't have much in common with the ideals of De Stijl.

The previous logos were all introduced in March 2007 and combined the networks' existing logos with a common template. The new logos introduce a new template and carry over some elements from the previous logos. The logos were launched with a few months between each other, starting with the popular music network Radio 2 on New Year's Day, followed by the classical music station Radio 4 in March, news and sports station Radio 1 in June and finally in August came new logos for Radio 5 with easy listening for the over 55 and Radio 6 with soul and jazz. Where's Radio 3, you ask. That is the edgy youth radio station 3FM that has its own independent design.

New logo: SF

It has now been three years since the Sci Fi channel changed its name to Syfy and started altering its direction slightly. Most of its international spin-offs were also renamed Syfy the following year, but in Australia the Sci Fi brand has remained in use, partly because the Australian Sci Fi channel was owned by a separate company that licensed the name from NBCUniversal. That is until yesterday, July 23, when the Australian Sci Fi channel changed its name to SF.

The new name doesn't mean the channel is distancing itself from from the science fiction genre, as the rebrand carries the tagline "We are sci fi". The new and identity was developed with the Australian broadcast design agency Ink Project, and it is also inspired by the sci fi genre. On screen, the logo starts out as a blob that appears to be a fusion between technology and organism.

New logo: Naturalis

Naturalis is the Dutch national museum of natural history and a biodiversity research center, located in the city of Leiden. Its 37 million specimen makes it one of the largest natural history collections in the world. After merging with two other museums in 2010 it has used the temporary name NCB Naturalis.

This month, on July 12, the museum changed its name to Naturalis Biodiversity Center and also launched a new visual identity, created by an agency called DieTwee from Utrecht.

Idents: NRK1 (2011)

Last year, Norway's largest broadcaster, NRK, introduced new idents for its flagship channel NRK1, featuring a large blue ball that appears in everyday Norwegian life.

NRK1 previous idents had developed over ten years and featured scenery from around Norway where some round object would form the "dot" in the R in the NRK logo. The blue ball was a new take on that idea, but has more focus the Norwegian people rather than the country itself.

The idents where created by UK motion agency Kemistry, who had created some idents on the previous theme and also rebranded NRK's news and NRK2 earlier on. They were shots in two batches, one in summer and one in the winter. The balls were created in different sizes and materials, and were sometimes mechanically controlled.

New logo: Microsoft Office

There has been plenty of buzz around the tech blogs lately about the design changes at Microsoft. After the redesigned Windows logo was released back in February, several other logos have been leaked and other have been officially released by Microsoft, all designed to fit with the new "Metro" design language. This week saw a major such logo change, as Steve Ballmer unveiled Office 2013 on Monday, June 16.