New logo: MTV Finland

MTV Media is Finland's largest commercial broadcaster. It was founded as Mainos-TV in 1957, which makes it one of the oldest private broadcasters in Europe. Today it has grown into a large audiovisual company with three national free-to-air channels, a national radio network, a bunch of sports and entertainment channels and online operations. Yesterday, August 29, MTV unveiled a new company logo as the first part of a company-wide identity programme.

The development was lead by DixonBaxi, who worked with MTV to clarify their strategy. They also helped building a new brand architecture and will bring the company's many brands to life across platforms later on. Two Finnish agencies were also involved, BrandWorxx worked with brand hierarchy and analysis tools, while Family Inc updated business-to-business advertising.

At the moment, the logo is the only element to have been revealed. It combines a circle shape with a corporate red colour. The identity is built around the new brand positioning "MTV for Experiences". Stay tuned for more on this project later this autumn.

New logo: TT Nyhetsbyran

TT, or Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, is Sweden's largest news agency, in operation since 1922. Over the years it has expanded to include a photo agency, a graphics agency and video material. Yesterday, August 28, the company unveiled a new unified company brand, intended to replace four different brand names that up until then had been used for it operations.

The new brand name is TT Nyhetsbyrån, which replaces TT Spektra, Scanpix, Svenska Grafikbyrån and Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå. Swedish design agency Blink created both the brand architecture and the visual identity. The logo should symbolise "an alert eye to the world".

TV logo round-up: January-June 2013

In 2011 and 2012 I published a bi-annual post called the "TV logo round-up", a collection of new logos for TV channels unveiled in the past half year. I retired it quietly this year, but after some requests for its return I've decided to revive it. The logos below where revealed or introduced between January and June this year. If you feel there's something missing, please do post a comment below.

New logo: Nuvo TV

NuvoTV is an American cable TV network that targets the Hispanic community with programming in English. Launched in 2004 as Sí TV, it became NuvoTV two years ago. At the upfronts this spring, NuvoTV announced that it had hired none other than Jennifer Lopez as its chief creative officer and that it would launch a new look. The new logo was unveiled in May 15, and launched on July 1.

The new logo is described as "progressive" and "sleek" and came with the tagline "We Are It". The new look was developed by Eyeball, independent creative director Juan Rosenfeldt and Nuvo's in-house team.

Milton Glaser and Grand Union

Grand Union was once a national supermarket chain in the United States with stores all over the country. Several decades later if had gone through a steady decline until it was just a handful of stores in north-eastern United States. That came to an end at the beginning of this July this year when the remaining stores were rebranded and Grand Union was confined to history.

Why is this particular supermarket chain of interest to this blog? Because for a long time its identity was shaped by prominent New York graphic designer Milton Glaser. His cooperation with Grand Union started in the 1970s when then-owner James Goldsmith decided that his chain needed a new look. Rather than hiring one of many firms specialized in retail design, he contacted Glaser who was famous for designing the I Love New York logo, psychedelic posters, and magazines like New York and Esquire, but didn't have any professional experience in retail.

New logos: Señal Colombia

Colombia's national broadcaster went through a rebranding exercise at the end of June. Having previously used different names and visual expressions for different channels it now presents a unified identity across radio, television, the internet and on the corporate level. They have done this by transferring the symbol and name of their primary TV network, Señal Colombia, to all other properties.

The parent company, which used to be called Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC), is now Señal Colombia Sistema de Medios Públicos. The "institutional" TV network Canal Insitutional has become Señal Institucional, while the two radio networks, Radio Nacional de Colombia and Radiónica, have become Señal Radio Colombia and Señal Radiónica, respectively.

New logo: Vanilla Air

AirAsia Japan is a budget airline operated as a joint venture between Malaysia's AirAsia and Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA). AirAsia recently decided to pull of of the venture, leaving ANA as the sole owner. As a result, the airline announced on Tuesday, August 20, that it would rebrand as Vanilla Air.

The name is said to have been chosen because the taste of vanilla is "loved by everyone around the world". The Western connotations of the word "vanilla" as a synonym for bland or boring do apparently not translate to Japan.