Classics: New York Life, 1964

This classic logo for the New York Life Insurance Company was introduced fifty years ago this year. During those fifty years, New York Life has continued to grow to become one of leading life insurers in the world, but they kept the logo virtually unchanged. It was introduced in the autumn of 1964 and was commissioned from Lippincott & Margulies, the still-active New York branding firm now known as Lippincott.

The actual logo was designed by Raphael Boguslav (1929-2010) who was employed at L&M at the time and created several other classic marks. At first glance, it may seem a bit un-assuming, just three words stacked in a square. At the time, that solution was a bit more unusual.

Before this symbol was adopted, New York Life had used an oval badge with the initials NYLIC (introduced in 1954), and before that they used an engraving of an eagle feeding its offspring. The Nylic badge had several problems, foremost among them was that it was not recognised outside the company. The fact that it was far from uniformly applied added to this problem.

L&M recommended that the company switch from the unclear Nylic moniker to the more natural sounding New York Life. The typography was inspired by Roman lettering, bringing a classic sensibility. A launch campaign and consistent application ensured that it became well established among both agents and the public at large.

Elisa splashes out on new look

Elisa is a major telecommunications company in Finland, offering both landline broadband Internet and mobile services. Yesterday, October 15, the company launched a new visual identity, developed by Swedish branding agency Grow.

The rebrand unites a bunch of product names that will live on a sub-brands under the corporate name. The unified identity should project an image of a more fluid and agile company. The friendly script logo is supported by a splash figure made up of constantly changing fluid shapes.

Logo round-up: September 2014

This September, usually one of the busiest months of the year when it comes to rebrands, didn't disappoint. There were dozens of interesting new projects launched around the world, including a new look for Southwest Airlines, a new name for Belgium's phone company, a national export brand for Turkey and several others.

Ubeeqotous car sharing

Ubeeqo is a French company that provides corporate car-sharing solutions, describing itself as a national leader in that field. It was known as Carbox until earlier this year when it adopted a new brand identity, developed by French agency Brand Brothers.

The agency worked on everything from naming to visual identity, applications and icons. The new look should convey easy travelling and consistency.

BBC First – in the mood for great drama

BBC First is a new premium TV channel from the BBC, first launched in Australia back in August. The channel features the best of BBC drama and the intention is to have it rolled out globally over time. The brand identity for the channel was developed by New York-based Trollbäck + Company, who are also working with the BBC on the launches of two further channel brands, BBC Earth and BBC Brit.

The BBC First brand is set in "an emotionally heightened world where nothing is just black and white, but supercharged with fine nuances and incredible plot twists". The idents convey different emotive vibes and moods through footage shot on film using a special camera set-up that has been double-exposed and projected.

The idents and a press release can be seen below.

New Boomerang logo launching worldwide

Boomerang is an International cable network dedicated to classic American cartoons from the likes of Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera. It was launched in the United States in 2000 as a spin-off from Cartoon Network and has since been rolled out worldwide. Yesterday, October 14, Boomerang announced that it would launch a new logo internationally.

The new logo is part of an international relaunch as a "global all-animation, youth-targeted network, repositioned with a line-up of timeless and contemporary cartoons programmed for family co-viewing". The new logo is clearly more linked to Cartoon Network, clearly positioning it as a sister channel.

Sapo leaps forward

Sapo is a Portuguese company that is both an internet service provider and the owner of several web portals through which it collects a large amount of Portugal's internet traffic. It was founded in 1995 essentially as Portugal's equivalent of America Online. The name is originally an acronym, but also happens to mean toad in Portuguese, so the company logo has always been a toad. This month the are introducing a redesigned version of that toad.

Sapo say they are "betting on credibility, creativity, innovation, technology and proximity" and that their logo is "modern, technological, innovative and disruptive". It also comes with a new set of colours and icons.