As creatives we constantly strive to reinterpret the world in new and visually exciting ways. Yet we can also be conservative and often have a knee-jerk reaction to something new.
So on the day a new logo design (opens in new tab) is launched for a familiar brand, the first reactions are usually negative. Once some time has passed and the new design has been seen in action, though, it can be a different story. Here we take a look back at the month's biggest redesigns: with a bit of fresh perspective, what do you think of them now?
01. Sundance Festival
The world-famous Sundance film festival and the organisation behind it, the Sundance Institute, recently had a branding makeover courtesy of Pentagram (opens in new tab)'s Paula Scher. That included the creation of this new logo (above) for next year's festival. The new design replaces the block-letter design (below) which had been in use since the middle of 2005.
02. Colorado
For many years, Colorado has had a state flag and seal, but until now it's never had a unified brand. But now that's all changed. Based on a concept devised by Denver designer Evan Hecox (opens in new tab), it's based around a green-and-white triangle with a snow-capped peak - purposely reminiscent of the state licence plate - sitting atop the letters CO.
The new logo and slogan was created as part of a collaboration between prominent business leaders, marketing experts and graphic designers led by Aaron Kennedy, the state's chief marketing officer. Nationwide research showed that the Colorado flag was commonly mistaken to signify Chicago, whereas the Colorado licence plate had high recognition.
03. TGI Fridays
TGI Fridays is currently rolling out this new, cleaner and more contemporary-looking logo design to its restaurants across the globe. The trademark colour scheme and stripes of all remain, but the new design is now far more streamlined inside a simple rectangle. The letters are now all in capitals, rather than the mixture of sentence case and title case of the previous design, and, most notably, the punctuation has all gone - even the apostrophe in "Friday's".
The new logo is already being used on this website (opens in new tab) and in a new TV ad campaign:
04. Air Asia Japan
In June 2013, AirAsia decided to exit its investment in AirAsia Japan, making the company a wholly owned subsidiary of ANA. So this month the company unveiled its new name and branding. Out went the bright red, Virgin-esque handwritten logo design (opens in new tab) of old (below) and in came a new name, Vanilla Air, and much more sedate blue and yellow logo design (above) that brings the Walmart logo to mind.
The company - which wants to target global travellers with a particular focus on resort destinations - hired several agencies and spent six weeks choosing from over 200 other names. The airline's president Tomonori Ishii said: "We chose vanilla as our brand name because it is popular and loved by everyone in the world ... I think it is a very cute name."
05. Yahoo
One logo redesign might be enough for some people . But search giant Yahoo is currently releasing 30 different logo designs - one every day over an entire month. The process has been designed as a kind of marketing campaign before a 'permanent' new logo is released on 4 September. You can see all the new 'temporary' logos in the video above.
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What do you make of this month's new logo designs? Let us know in the comments box below!
