Twenty years of the Orange brand (1994)

Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of one of the Orange brand. On April 28, 1994, Britain got a new mobile telephony company with the unconventional name Orange. It has since grown to become a large corporation and a textbook case for how to conceive and launch a new brand.

Hutchison Microtel, owmned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, had won the license to set up Britain's fourth GSM network. It didn't have any particular technical advantages, so it would have to build its business on its offers and its brand. In addition to Microtel's in-house team, the company commissioned corporate identity form Wolff Olins and ad agency WCRS to establish a tone of voice for the new brand.

Mobile telecommunication was still seen as something for businessmen among the public, as well in parts of the industry itself. This reflected in the technical names of its competitors; Vodafone, Cellnet and One2One. The story goes that the brand was to established on simplicity, openness and optimism. Names like Pecan and Gemini were considered, but the team selected the Orange. The name, Wolff Olins' square logo and the communicative concept signalled warmth and humanity. The offers and their pricing were seen as honest and straightforward.

Fresh identity for Swedish lifestyle channel TV12

TV12 is a new Swedish television channel dedicated to sports and lifestyle programmes for a general audience. It is owned by the TV4 Group and launched on March 29, replacing an all sports channel. Its brand identity was developed by Black Peacock and adapted for broadcast graphics by Broken Doll. Both agencies are based in Stockholm.

Although billed as a sports and lifestyle channel, the emphasis is on the lifestyle content. The intention was to create a fresh and elegant identity that stands out this. This is achieved by using bright "natural" gradients superimposed on people engaged in sports and everyday activities.

Refresh for Dutch yogurt brand Almhof

Previous logo.

Almhof is a Dutch brand for yogurt and other dairy-based foods. It has been owned by German dairy group Müller since 2004. Back in January this year, Almhof introduced a refreshed brand identity, created by Millford.

The work included a new logo, packaging and a new brand architecture. The new packaging is designed to convey "irresistible temptation" and the product's natural ingredients.

Transform Awards 2014

This blog has been tangentially involved in the Transform Awards which were held earlier this month. The Transform Awards recognise brand development work done in Europe and have done so since 2010. This year they are expanding with new award ceremonies due to be held for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region on June 2 and Asia-Pacific in November.

Two British rebrands were clearly the most appreciated projects, each bringing home one of the two best-in-show awards as well as several category awards. They were the ITV rebrand of last year, created in.house by ITV Creative, and The Clearing's new look-and-feel for Eurostar.

All the awards are presented below.

Brand refresh for car rental company Localiza by Interbrand

Localiza is a Brazilian car rental company with branches around Latin America. It recently introduced a refreshed brand identity, created by Interbrand São Paulo who worked on everything from strategy and repositioning to brand architecture.

The brand concept is described as "caring for the path of every costumer" and should reinforce existing brand attributes such as simplicity, efficiency and clarity. This is done by uniting the company under one brand, with three sub-brands for different business units.

Functionally, the new logos are horizontal - which means they will be easier to use - and overall more contemporary and integrated. The lines from the redesigned icon can also be used as creative graphic devices.

Logo round-up: March 2014

Finally, here's the logo round-up for March 2014. A busy month with lots of new logos unveiled, three dozen of which are featured here.

New identity for Welsh TV channel S4C

S4C is a national channel for Wales with programmes in the Welsh language. Its name is an abbreviation of Sianel Pedwar Cymru, which is Welsh for "Channel Four Wales". It launched in 1982 and is financed by a combination of advertising and license fee money. Last week, on April 10, it launched a new visual identity, created by Cardiff-based Sugar Creative Studio. Some of the implementation was done in-house at S4C.

Functionally, the new logo needed to robust and work with sub-brands and other elements on screen. As an on-screen bug, it was designed to occasionally "wake up" and deliver programme information. Central to Sugar's idea was to establish S4C as a 'context' to which the viewer associates the channel's 'content'. In the new channel idents feature people from Wales in different activities, using the people of Wales as an expression of the 'context' idea.