New logo: Manutan

Manutan is a French distributor of office supplies with subsidiaries in much of Europe. In some countries it trades under different names, notable Overtoom in Benelux and Germany, Witre in the Nordic countries and Rapid Racking in the UK. This January it introduced a new logo accompanied by the tagline "All You Need. With Love.".

There doesn't seem to be any rationale provided for the new logo at the moment, but it is an obvious improvement on what came before. Those subsidiaries that aren't using the name of the parent company have had their logos clumsily amended to show that they are "family members of Manutan".

New look: Zapp and Zappelin

It's Friday, so here's a project that I've had among my drafts for a few months. Zapp and Zappelin are the two children's brands for the Dutch public broadcasters. Zapp targets kids over six, whilw Zappelin is for those under six, and they both operate as cross platform brands with their own dedicated TV channel, slots on other channels and websites. Last autumn, on September 3, they both introduced completely new looks, created by Amsterdam agency Terralemon.

The agency was assigned to bring the two brands together, which they did through colour, shapes and music, while also giving them a tone of voice appropriate to each age group. Before this, the two brans had gone in somewhat different directions.

Zappelin lost its very literal zeppelin logo in favour of a green butterfly. In idents, the logo flies through a safe and friendly world where characters from the shows associated with brand pop up. The new Zapp logo is more aligned with the diamond shape used by the public TV channels in the Netherlands. This logo also flies through a clean world, but the animation and music is more energetic.

New logo: Divnitsa

Divnitsa (Дивница) is a brand for sugar, flour and grains from Razgulyay, Russia's largest agricultural company. Its visual identity and packaging was recently completely redesigned by Moscow agency Depot WPF.

The new look is reportedly intended to "radiate the warmth of home while also being modern" and the communicate the brand's positioning as "warm, caring, friendly and experienced". The new symbol is a "talking pot", drawn like an old engraving.

New logo: Jippi

NorgesGruppen is Norway's leading wholesale and retail grocery company. Last month, it launched a new brand called Jippi for a line of healthy products for children. The brand was designed by Strømme Throndsen Design who are also behind the packaging for the initial range of 34 products.

While the products have been tested to meet nutritional standards, the packaging is designed to appeal to kids, featuring a set of agile 3D characters.

Logo round-up: January 2013

Boy, were there many logo changes in January. This round-up collects almost fifty of them. While the new corporate identity for American Airlines is easily the most significant, this month also saw new logos for American cable channels VH1 and Food Network, as well as Billboard magazine, Harvard University Press, Denmark's national broadcaster and the Polish postal service. There were also several new brands unveiled, such as France's new low-cost airline Hop!

New logo: Sat.1 Gold

In January, the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 launched a new free-to-air TV channel called Sat.1 Gold with an oddly unusual target demographic of women over 49. It launched on January 17 with the 2010 film The Whore, a display of its commitment to German productions.

The on-air graphics for the new channel were created by Creative Solutions, ProSiebenSat.1's in-house agency. Naturally, its signature colour is gold and idents feature scenes and landscapes shot against a  gold-tinted sunset. The channel was launched with an ad campaign featuring two puppets, also devised by Creative Solutons.

New logo: Cornetto

Cornetto is a brand for ice cream cones sold around the world by Unilever's many ice cream companies. To start off 2013, the brand has been given a fresh new logo.

Although an evolution of its predecessor, the new logo goes in a swirlier direction with swashes extending from the C and double-t. A subtle heart-swash has been also been added. The packaging doesn't change that much, aside from the logo change.