New logo: Direct Énergie

Direct Énergie is a French power company, formed in 2003 after the energy market was opened up to private competition. In July this year it merged with another electricity company called Poweo. This presented the opportunity to introduce a new corporate identity, which was launched last week and was created by Dragon Rouge.

The new symbol is a circle, representing unity and togetherness. Its yellow colour is for warmth and optimism and the wordmark is set in rounded lowercase letters, which should convey proximity to consumers.

New logo: Comcast

Back in January 2011 when NBCUniversal became majority-owned by Comcast and introduced its new simple purple logo, there was plenty of uproar about the removal of the NBC peacock. In an unexpected move, Comcast itself has suddenly started using a new logo that prominently features the NBC peacock over a wordmark set in thin capital letters.

Becoming the symbol of a communications company marks a change in use for the peacock, that until now has mainly been associated with television and associated media. The new logo was unveiled on Monday, December 10. At the moment we only have the primary corporate brandmark, but there are several other Comcast-branded assets, such as the Comcast Sportsnets, that will presumably have to be updated as well.

New logo: Paraf

Last week, the large Turkish bank Halkbank introduced a new brand for its credit cards, until then branded as "Halkcard". The new brand was developed by Saffron Brand Consultants who were selected in competition with several other major brand consultancies. They developed both the name and visual identity.

Developed "as a tool that’s there when you need it most", the brand's name means "signature" in Turkish. This is reflected in the logo and background patterns, inspired by islamic art.

Logo round-up: November 2012

Here's a round-up of logos unveiled this past November. This is usually a slow month, but there were still a good crop of significant and interesting project that you can read more about below.

New logo: iTunes

In late November, Apple introduced iTunes 11, the latest version of their popular media player. It comes with a new version of the iTunes icon.

The icon was last updated two years ago when iTunes 10 was released. It was a significant change that confined the CD that had been used until then to history. As Steve Jobs explained at the time, the CD was becoming increasingly less relevant as music consumption was changing. This recent update is much less notable. The note has switched from black to grey and the entire is somewhat more three-dimensional. It also comes with a different variety of app icon glare.

New look: ID by Stride

ID is a new chewing gum brand launched earlier this autumn by Kraft Foods (now known as Mondelez) in the United States. Its packaging was developed by Landor Associates in Cincinnati.

Primarily targeting teens, the packaging features original artwork commissioned from young emerging artists around the world. The artwork is hidden by a transparent cellophane wrap the consumer has to remove to see the artwork. This encourages interaction that should foster a relationship with the brand. The packaging carries a "by Stride" tag, linking it to a more established gum brand.

New logo: Comviq

Comviq is a Swedish mobile telecommunication company, founded back to 1981 when it was the first company to challenge the state monopoly on mobile telephony. It is owned by Tele2 and operated as a separate brand, specialised in prepaid cards. Last month, on November 7, Comviq launched its first mobile subscription, and also relaunched its communication built on its core proposition of simplicity at low cost. A new corporate identity has been designed by Swedish design agency Kurppa Hosk.

Visually, the new look relies on an eccentric custom typeface, a few vibrant colours and a dripping paint motif. The three core product brands – Amigos, Kompis and Fastpris – are colour-coded with individual logo-types.