Landor develops new Forcepoint brand for cybersecurity firm

Websense was an Austin-based Internet security company that provided web filtering and other services. Last year it was bought by defence contractor Raytheon, combined with similar assets and briefly renamed Raytheon|Websense. This month it was relaunched under the new name Forcepoint. The new name and identity was developed by Landor's San Francisco office.

The name should highlight the company's strength and focused approach. The brand's visual expression conveys "action, intelligence, and a heroic brand statement".

Logo round-up: December 2015

A final look back at 2015 with the logo round-up for December! A relatively small crop but with several interesting projects from around the world.

Brandient brand unreasonably free energy drink

Romanian brand design agency Brandient has created the brand identity for a new energy drink from a Eastern European beverage distribution group. It is called 'Badster' and will target a young target audience looking for "unreasonable freedom".

The name Badster embodies an "intelligent and daring jerk" that is fiercely independent. At the center of the cans is a B monogram in the form of the number 13.

DesignStudio helps launch Treatwell brand for beauty booking website

Wahanda, a European beauty salon booking website, was relaunched this week under the new name Treatwell. This sees the site adopt a unified and coherent identity across the ten countries where it operates.

The visual identity was developed by brand design agency DesignStudio. Applications use a bright mix of photography, illustrations and abstract lines that evoke movement.

Lippincott rebrands love publisher YourTango

YourTango is a publisher "focused on love and relationships", with a website where people can read about these subjects. Shortly before Christmas it relaunched its website with a new visual identity developed by Lippincott.

The odd heart-shape in the original logo has been replaced by a script logo that "speaks to the genuine, insightful and empathetic content the brand provides". It is flanked by a similarly linear heart illustration that can be used for various purposes.

Temporary logo for Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes

France went through a major territorial reform at the beginning of the year that saw the number of government regions drop from 22 to 13. Most regions were affected and found themselves merged with one or more of their neighbours. The new regions have until the middle of the year to decide what they are going to call themselves. For some it is obvious, the recently merged Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy is now simply called Normandy. Others have more unwieldy names like Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine and Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées.

Another such example is Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes, formed through the merger of Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. ALPC has some 5.8 million inhabitants and includes of much of south-western France. The region will get a new name later this year, but still needed a visual identity, revealed shortly before Christmas.

The provisional nature of the logo didn't stop its creators from having a bit of fun by lining up the I's in the three names.

Regional cable company shortens name to Midco

Midcontinent Communications, a regional cable TV company in the American Midwest, changed its name last week. It is now known as Midco, which has long been the company's nickname. At the same time, the company has introduced a fresh new look to replace the outdated mountain used up until now.

Italy's telco gathers all activities under TIM brand

Italy's incumbent telco Telecom Italia launched a major rebrand effort yesterday which will see most of its consumer-facing activities merge under one name. TIM (once short for Telecom Italia Mobile) used to be the brand name for mobile services, but will now replace the Telecom Italia brand which has been relegated to corporate functions.

The company also revealed a new TIM symbol which it say will better express its focus on the future. It signifies a transformation from a phone carrier to "an industrial and technological player able to offer innovative products and services through the development of enabling platforms".

The move follows similar changes at other telcos around Europe, most notably France Telecom which changed its name to Orange in 2013.

Troika rebrands French-Canadian channel TFO

TFO stands for Télévision française de l'Ontario and is a French-language publicly funded television channel in Ontario, Canada. It features a mix of educational and local programming for all ages. This week it launched a new graphic package and a refreshed look, created by Hollywood-based agency Troika.

The new package is described as friendly, human and educational. The current TFO logo, introduced in 2012, remains unchanged. It's flag shape is used extensively in the graphics package as different devices that give a sense of motion.

Pearson adopts interrobang symbol

Pearson is a British publishing group with a great heritage stretching back to 1844. It was once a sprawling media conglomerate but has over time sold off many assets (including Penguin Books and  the Financial Times) to focus on textbooks and other education products. This week it launched a new visual identity to reflect these changes.

The previous logo was a sober wordmark in a rectangle that could take on different colours. It was a simplification of an earlier mark that also included an arc (a "global horizon") that had been used in various iterations since 1995 (the original version was designed by Luxon Carra).

The new symbol features an "interrobang", a combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark used when denoting that a question is asked excitedly. Pearson has found this to be a good interpretation of what they do. The interrobang is surrounded by a thumbprint-shaped blob. The "excitement" of the symbol is balanced by a dignified serif wordmark.

BBC Three launches abstract logo ahead of overhaul

The BBC is about to scrap one of its domestic television channels, the youth-skewing BBC Three (currently complementing BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four). But the BBC Three brand will not disappear completely. It will live on as an online video service with similar content.

Yesterday, the channel launched a new look ahead of this transition. It keeps the pink colour, but introduces a new mark with a roman numeral. Other than the numeral, it is clear that BBC Three's other graphics will be dominated by bold and clear typography.