Museum of London logo

Coley Porter Bell‘s new logo for the Museum of London (right). Pentagram’s former logo for the institution is shown on the left. Via CR Blog, and Brand New.

Montreal logo

In the fall of 2006, the Montreal Metropolitan Community decided it needed “a branding that will clearly and cohesively present the metropolitan region’s features on the international scene.”

Two years and $487,000 later, here’s the new Montreal brand identity. Smarties anyone? Via The Logo Factor.

David Pache

An interview with David Pache.

“I consider myself a multi-media services provider. However, the reason why I focus a lot of my time and energy on logo design per se is that this is the area that 90% of my clients require from me. And it really is my passion.”

Objectified logo

Build, established in 2001 by Michael C. Place, has documented the logo design creation for Objectified, using a neat series of images. Michael talks about the logo on the Build blog. Via Quipsologies.

Cecif logo tutorial

Veerle takes us step-by-step through a number of actions in Adobe Illustrator. The tutorial shows how the Cecif.com logo icon was created.

Five logo design

DixonBaxi recently completed a rebrand of Five (one of the UK’s terrestrial TV channels). Via FormFiftyFive.

Thanks for reading

I hope you enjoy these brief round-ups. Thanks for taking the time to read, and if there are any particular features or articles you want to see here, do leave a comment and let me know.

Comments

Glad you included the post about the Montreal Brand Identity as that is one that I am still shocked by, not because it’s a hideous logo (it really is) but because of the kind of money put into it, what does a design firm DO to justify that kind of money?

Yup, reminds me of those multi coloured socks that were real popular in the 70’s. But lets not get hung up on the cost. I’m pretty sure that the figure quoted wasn’t for design fees alone but would encompass the roll out of the brand across a variety of media. At the end of the day, just like any mediocre brand if they pump enough cash into it it’ll do okay, I mean look at T mobile…

Excellent post as usual Dave. Objectified was interesting and I loved the dave Pache interview (although not the design of the blog it was posted on. sorry.) Thanks for a nice evening reader.

Smarties indeed. I would be interested also in finding out where the money went and how it was divided, is there a link somewhere?

I am a big fan of the Museum of London rebranding! It looks great, memorable and really reminds me of a museum… colours, things to do and look at and it reminds me of geography too. I haven’t read much more on it but I really like it and I can see it being adjusted over a variety of areas.

Thanks for the post David.

really don’t like the Montreal logo design and how much money has been spent to this.some students can do better with that. I live here in Montreal so I can assure you that 75% don’t agree with this logo.

George,

Like David says, I’m sure the cost of the Montreal brand project included much more than just the logo. It reminds me of the amount of money thrown at the London 2012 project.

David,

T Mobile’s a great example. I’m not keen on their logo at all.

Preston,

I agree. It’s a shame the website hosting David Pache’s interview isn’t a little more reader-friendly. The text formatting even goes wrong towards the end of his answers. Great insight all the same.

Jacob,

You’re very welcome. I’ve no info about how the Montreal design fee was split, but if you find some, do let me know.

At first glance I didn’t like the Museum of London logo, but at second glance I realised the viewer can interpret it so many ways. It’s reminiscent of a fossil. An eagle eye view of an old tree trunk. It’s very organic and geographic. It even has an evolutionary feel to it….does that sound weird? But yeah, my two cents.

Grace+Peace

Is it just me or do we all hate every new logo a large company/organisation/etc. gets? At least that seems to be situation in most cases. I think that it is hard for us to accept a new logo because we are so familiar with the old one; we see it every day and we connect it with the company. What most people whose comments and thoughts I’ve read seems to forget is that after four months of hardcore marketing the new logo will become just as associated with the company as the old one used to be. I don’t really get it when people say that “I just loved the old logo because I always thought about that company when I saw it”. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the old one was good, just that it was associated with the company because we was used to it. We must remember that after a year or two the new one, in most situations, will have the same place in our minds, and we will think about that specific company when we see it, just like we did with the old one. What I am trying to say is that we should really give the logo a little time before we judge it.
I guess it is a natural thing for humans to be sceptical against new things and changes. Take a look at how the logo works together with the rest of the branding first, and let it “sink in” for a couple of weeks before we start hating it.

Well, I kinda feel a bit like Frankenstein’s monster about to be lynched here. I think there’s something in the Montreal logo, at first glance It appealed to me, maybe because I like softer more friendly logos, I don’t know, but there’s just something about it. I think maybe there aren’t enough colours in it, the cross sections create too many shapes that are easy to identify, like the sock comments earlier.

Like David said, bit of a flashback of the 2012 farce but a better logo for me.

Hated the Museum logo for a few minutes, then, when you gaze into its freakish eye you feel adventure!! It resembles a strange being from a B movie, trying to suck you in!! Good fun!! You can image a huge 3d version built from layers in the museum, that you can climb inside.

Ooooo I like the museum logo – I think I’m being overly influenced by the colours though!

What does it ‘mean’ I wonder.

Montreal – it’s getting to the point now David where you could almost launch a new blog called ‘when bad logos happen to good people’

It’s not Olympics bad, but its very ‘dubious’.

‘Olympics bad’ – is that going to be new standard by which we judge bad logos ;)

Jasmine,

Not weird at all. I hope you’re keeping well.

David,

I enjoyed reading your interview, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

Ørjan,

You make a valid point about not liking change, but I wouldn’t go so far as to hate every new logo a large company launches. Pentagram’s CultureBus logo is a good example, although you may counter that it isn’t a redesign, but a new logo.

Another good point is to let logo ‘sink in’, and view it in context. Hasty decisions can be rash.

Al, Amanda,

Thanks for your thoughts, and time. Happy Monday to you all.

At first glance I thought the Montreal logo was an alternative for the Museum of London – the colours are very similar!

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