Year in review 2016

To round off another year, here's the year in review round-up for 2016. The summary includes more than 100 of the year's most interesting projects. As usual, the selection is a mix of high profile clients and distinctive designs.

Mövenpick flies new logo

Mövenpick is a Swiss hotel group with locations around the world. The group is also involved in restaurants, wines, coffee and fine foods (although the ice cream business was sold off some years ago). Yesterday, the group unveiled a new logo designed by London-based agency Bulletproof.

According to a press release, the more contemporary logo reflects "warmth, self-assurance and characteristic ‘Swissness’ that shines through the forward-looking company’s properties, and staff, across the globe".

The new wordmark is cleaner, with the seagull redesigned to more clearly "soar" over it. Just like its predecessor, the wordmark will work as a masterbrand for Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, the various hotels and the other businesses.

Google's self-driving car becomes Waymo

Google has been developing the technology to create a self-driving car for some time now and yesterday they took another step by spinning off this business off into a separate company within the Alphabet group. The new company is called Waymo, which stands for "a new way forward in mobility". The logo above was revealed at the same time.

There's not much information available on the logo, but it wouldn't be stretch to guess that the interlocking lines in the W are supposed to represent a journey and its location, or something like that.

Logo round-up: November 2016

Taco Bell's simplified logo was easily the biggest news in November, but we also got a lovely and striking symbol from Pentagram, some redesigned food brands and around thirty other new logos from around the world.

Designworks links new logo for Vision Australia

Vision Australia is a non-profit that provides services to blind people in Australia. On December 1, it launched a new corporate identity, reportedly developed by Designworks.

The refreshed brand should put the organisation's commitment to its clients at the centre. A new symbol made up of three interlinked ovals represents how the organisation cooperates with its clients and other organisations.

From the 80s: Incomplete logo for The Complete PC

The Complete PC, Inc. was a computer peripherals maker in Milpitas, California in the late 80s. Their first product was a board that you could stick into your computer to turn it into an advanced answering machine. It was called the "Complete Answering Machine" and came out in 1987, followed by a fax board, a scanner and other products.

The company's logo was designed by Margaret Hellman of Lawrence Bender & Associates, a Palo Alto-based agency with many high-tech clients. The stencil letterforms were "completed" by coloured bars when the logo was printed in colour, which was probably part of the rationale behind the design.

It may have been introduced with the launch of the answering machine in 1987. It didn't survive long, being replaced by a more sober serif logo by the end of 1988, but it did nonetheless get featured in a few design publications over the following years.

ConAgra launches leafy logo after spinoff

ConAgra Foods, one of the larger owners of consumer food brands in the United States, changed its name to ConAgra brands last month (November 10). This marked its spin-off of the potato business Lamb Weston. Remaining with ConAgra are most of its famous brands including Hunt's, Reddi Wip, Slim Jim and Swiss Miss.

The logo above was launched with the new name, featuring a multicoloured leafy symbol, presumably representing different elements or ingredients.

Belgian town Verviers weaves new logos

Verviers is a town in Belgium with a history dating back a millennium and about 50,000 current inhabitants. Last week, on November 29, the town revealed a new visual identity created by Liège-based agency Synthèse.

Logos for smaller towns and municipalities tend to fall somewhere between the mediocre and the awful. This one is remarkably more interesting as it manages to carry out one idea coherently with a variety of applications.

In addition to the main town symbol, there are variations for its three districts. They all feature a green V and a woven pattern.

CBA brands cultural centre in Milano

Centro Culturale di Milano is, to translate, a cultural centre in Milano. Formed in 1981 it strives to "bring together different stories, people, experiences and cultures". In October it launched a new visual identity, developed by CBA.

Built around the letter C, most collateral features concentric circles, showing how culture spreads from the central point that is the cultural centre.