New look: SBS2

SBS2 is an Australian digital television channel from public broadcaster SBS. Initially introduced in 2009, it was relaunched on April 1 as "the new channel for emerging culture", focused on attracting younger viewers with imports from the UK and the US.

The new logo looks a bit like a quick brush stroke, and other graphics go in a similar rebellious vein with skewed motion-tracked graphics on torn pieces of paper.

New look: Foxtel

Foxtel is Australia's leading pay TV platform, offering hundreds of channels to Australian homes via cable, satellite and IPTV. Last year it implemented a new design programme, created by branding agency Principals. Parts of this could be seen in the Foxtel Movies rebrand, posted here in January.

Before the redesign, the Foxtel logo contained an icon with two searchlights, but it was dropped and the wordmark now stands alone. Instead, the searchlight motif has been turned into a visual device that can be filled with the world of entertainment offered by the company. A new set of idents, created by Ink Project, contains out-of-focus images that suddenly become sharp when touched by the searchlight.

New logo: South Australia

South Australia is a federal state in Australia, making up the central southern part of the continent. Yesterday, March 6, a new brand that should promote the state to businesses, tourists and its citizens. The brand was designed by Cato Partners.

It introduces a new icon, clearly inspired by the shape of the state's borders and its location to create a doorway into a house shaped like Australia. Conceptually, this is tied up as the state being the portal to all of Australia (see quotes further down). It is also a versatile motif that can be used a myriad of ways. In the applications used so far, the symbol has been turned into a window to frame different images, while other use just the doorway to create a graphical element for advertisements.

New logo: Foxtel Movies

On January 1, the operations of Australia's two premium movie channel packages - Showtime and Movie Network - were winded down and replaced by one common brand, Foxtel Movies. This was because Australia's largest pay TV distributor wanted to take its premium channels in-house and buy movies directly from the content providers. Previously, Foxtel only owned half of Showtime Australia, while the rest of that service and all of Movie Network was owned by consortia of movie studios.

The main logo is a straight-forward Gotham wordmark with a leaning M that is also used separately as an icon. Logos for individual channels consists of the leaning M and the channel name.

New logo: Allens Linklaters

In May this year, Australia's leading law firm Allens Arthur Robinson formed an alliance with Linklaters, a global law firm head-quartered in London. This means Allens is Linklaters' partner in Australia, Linklaters is Allens partner in the rest of the world, and the two have agreed to form joint-ventures in Asia. Reflecting the fact that the two firms will work together, they also adopted a unified corporate identity, developed by Australian design agency Hulsbosch.

Allens Arthur Robinson dropped its two former names to become Allens. The Australian firm was keen to have its name first, a decision that also makes sense pronunciation wise. The new identity would use the same typeface as Linklaters global identity, with Linklaters set in its established magenta and Allens would use a blue shade. The two colours are equally strong and have almost the same lightness.

Two arrows separate the two equal brand, while also bringing them together. This arrow motif is also used extensively on stationery and other applications.

New logo: Rebel

Rebel Sports is an Australian sporting goods retailer that bills itself as the largest such retailer in the country. In November it introduced a new brand identity, created by Australian branding agency Hulsbosch.

The name Rebel now has such high brand awareness that the word "sport" could be dropped from the logo. The new logo is a simple lowercase wordmark with a flipped E to signify healthy competition between individuals or against oneself. Using simple typography, a yellow-black-white colour scheme and monochrome imagery, the visual identity has been applied to all branded assets both instore and on advertising.

New logo: Tourism Australia

Tourism Australia is the official organisation responsible for promoting Australia to tourists. Today, December 6, it has unveiled a new logo which is an evolution of the kangaroo logo used up until now. Interbrand Sydney was the agency behind this redesign.

The new logo is said to feature a "more modern design and vibrant colourful palette reflecting the rich and varied landscape of Australia". It is also said to be more sophisticated and better aligned with Tourism Australia's positioning.

New logo: Energy Australia

Last year, the Australian gas and electricity company TRUEnergy acquired state-owned EnergyAustralia's retail business, including its name. As a result, the remaining electricity grid operations were renamed Ausgrid.

Recently, TRUEnergy announced that it would adopt the EnergyAustralia name and unveiled a new corporate identity. The new symbol is a glowing E, that should perhaps remind us of a compact flourescent.

New logo: LifeStyle Food

LifeStyle Food is an Australian specialty network dedicated to food, launched in 2004 as a spinoff from The LifeStyle Channel. Recently, probably at the beginning of July, it launched a new on-screen look. With it came a new circle logo to replace the one the channel had used in various forms since launch.

A series of dramatic and humorous idents have been created in-house, with audio from sound production studio Smith&Western.

New logo: SF

It has now been three years since the Sci Fi channel changed its name to Syfy and started altering its direction slightly. Most of its international spin-offs were also renamed Syfy the following year, but in Australia the Sci Fi brand has remained in use, partly because the Australian Sci Fi channel was owned by a separate company that licensed the name from NBCUniversal. That is until yesterday, July 23, when the Australian Sci Fi channel changed its name to SF.

The new name doesn't mean the channel is distancing itself from from the science fiction genre, as the rebrand carries the tagline "We are sci fi". The new and identity was developed with the Australian broadcast design agency Ink Project, and it is also inspired by the sci fi genre. On screen, the logo starts out as a blob that appears to be a fusion between technology and organism.

New logo: Australian Associated Press

Australia's national news agency, the Australian Associated Press (AAP), announced a new corporate identity last week, on May 24. The new symbol is "a stylised ribbon that represents the 24/7 flow of breaking news for which AAP is renowned". Melbourne agency Charles Elena Design designed the new branding, while Tempo Partners get a consultant credit.

The rebranding is part of streamlining of AAP's many product brands, and involved giving many of them new names. The different divisions now all use the symbol, but with colour coding that allows them to be easily identified.

AAP says rebranding is the "largest overhaul of the existing corporate image in nearly 25 years". It should be fully implemented in June.

New logo: Australian Youth Orchestra

The Australian Youth Orchestra is an Australian organisation for young classical musicians, operating several orchestras and training programmes. This month, it has adopted a new visual identity, created by Landor in Sydney.

The three initials have each been turned into two abstract outlined letterforms, one rigid outer shell and a more dynamic inner version that can change form and animate. The two letters are blended together to create several more lines, apparently inspired by musical staves. (You kids at home can recreate this with the "Blend" tool in Illustrator.)

There are a few more visuals available on Desktop.

New look: Studio

Studio is an Australian cable-satellite channel dedicated to the arts, owned by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). On March 1, it launched a new on-air identity based around the tagline "Everyday Inspires", created by Australian broadcast design agency Ink Project, who were also behind the rebrand of SBS' movie channel World Movies back in August.

Ink Project also created four image spots that will be used as idents. They are based around time-lapse live action photography where the logo is formed in creative ways.

Studio launched in April 2010, and the launch logo was created by Sydney design agency Frost Design and spelled out the name as STVDIO. That logo has been updated by giving up the perhaps not overly clever letterplay.

New logo: New Theatre

The New Theatre is an independent theatre company in Sydney that has been active for 80 years. Recently, it launched a new visual identity, created by Interbrand in Sydney.

The identity is centered around an NT lettermark - a red N made up of two Ts and a diagonal bar. Applications make clever use of the versatile new mark, supported by single-colour images and bold headlines.

New logo: World Movies

World Movies is an Australian art-house movie channel with foreign films and related content. It is owned by the public Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and is available on the country's subscription television platforms.

Back in August, World Movies introduced a new look, created by the Australian broadcast design firm Ink Project. The entire graphics package is based around the zoetrope, the original form of motion pictures, its name incidentally meaning 'wheel of life'. Graphics use a flickering effect to mimic the zoetrope, and slanted bars reminds us of the slits through which one can see the moving image. A new logo was created using these bars. The graphics also feature an inspirational musical score was composed by Groove Quantize.

New logo: OzTam

OzTam (Australian Television Audience Measurement), the company that collects television ratings in Australia, unveiled a new corporate identity today, October 17.

The new logo was developed in-house, with some assistance from Seven Design, the Seven Network's design team, in the final stages.

New logo: Raine & Horne

On Wednesday, September 12, the major Australian real estate firm Raine & Horne launched a completely new corporate identity, created by the branding agency IdeaWorks.

At the center of the new look is a friendly wordmark and a gold-grey colour scheme. "Gold is warm and optimistic and ignites passion and represents the leadership Raine & Horne takes in the real estate industry", says Kit Bashford who is a communications manager at the global firm.

Previous logo.

The "unique hand-crafted bespoke" ampersand is central in the new identity, and can be used as a stand-alone identifier or visual device.

New logo: Vix

Vix Technology is a company that creates and operates "Automated Fare Collection" systems and associated technology solutions for the transit sector. Based in Melbourne, Australia, it has offices around the world.

A week ago, on October 3, the company unveiled a new corporate identity that gathered several business units under one common name, Vix. At the same time, Vix adopted a colourful 'pinwheel' symbol.

"Along with the new integrated mobility platform the branding for the business has been changed. The new 'pinwheel' logo has been developed to reflect the unified new business and the six core values of Vix. 'We wanted to signal to both our staff and customers that things have changed both in the way we service our clients and our product offer. This new logo and approach to branding is one of the tools that will help us achieve this.'" - Press release

Previous Vix Technology logo.

New logo: Telstra

Last week, we could read that the Russian telecom operator Rostelecom was introducing a new logo featuring several bright colour combinations in an attempt to appear sensitive, warm and focused on people. At about the same time, on the other side of the globe, the Australian telecom company Telstra launched a rebrand campaign that uses bright colours to deliver a similar message.

However, Telstra are not introducing a completely new logo. Instead, they are giving a new lick of paint to the old one. Or rather six different licks of paint, as their "T-falling-into-a-hole" icon is now available with different colour combinations, instead of the orange-blue combination it has used until now. The six colour combinations are orange, green, turquoise, blue, purple and magenta, and will be used for both the logo and new graphical devices as part of a new visual language.

The new brand identity was developed by Interbrand.

Telstra have provided an exciting rebrand video that should provide more context:



The Telstra logo dates back to the 1990s. Initially the stem of the T was invisible, but that was altered some years ago. In more recent years, Telstra have mostly used the T-and-oval part alone.


Previous Telstra logo.

Telstra logo from the 1990s.

Some examples of the new brand identity can be seen below, after the jump.

New logo: Air Australia

The Australian charter airline Strategic Airlines is in the process of turning itself into a low-cost passenger carrier. To mark this change, it will change its name to Air Australia as it prepares to start flights to the United States.

Strategic Airlines was "launched" as a charter airline in October 2008, taking to the skies during 2009, using the logo seen above.

The namechange has been discussed at least since April. It was eventually announced that Sean Cummins of Cummins-Ross had been tasked with coming up with a new brand strategy and designing a livery and corporate identity. Sean Cummins is also credited with the original livery for Virgin Blue, another challenger airline.

The new livery was unveiled at the beginning of September. It featured lime green as the signature colour of the new airline, including a new lime green boomerang symbol. The aim is to portray the airline as both 'Australian' and 'fresh'.

The new name will formally launch on October 30. It seems like a full colour version of the new logo is yet to be released, so we'll have to make do with the monochrome version seen at the top of this article for now.