BRAND
State Library of Western Australia (SLWA)

OWNED BY
Government of Western Australia

LOGO DESIGNER
Block Branding

OFFICIAL DESIGN BRIEF
“Every visitor to the State Library of Western Australia shares a common trait: a sense of curiosity. Our new brand identity is inspired by the individual journeys of discovery people took in the Library. The journey line represents how one story, one question, one thought, one spark, can set in motion a lifelong love of learning, inspiration and discovery. After all, amazing things happen when we follow what makes us wonder.”

“Where will the State Library take you?”

LOGO RELEASE
03 October 2023

PREVIOUS LOGO

Where are the books?

The earlier logo featured a stack of books that looked like a map of Western Australia. The new logo is very abstract — but it can be argued that it shows the spines of books or the planar view of book shelves and aisles between them. It can also be argued that our modern day libraries are mere internet cafes and provider of free eBooks online. So, a ‘physical book’ imagery might be irrelevant on the logo of SLWA!

Where is the Western Australia connection?

Many entities of Western Australia use the WA map on their logo, to show their roots.

Western Australia Map Logos

Here are some of the logos arranged from the most abstract to the least abstract.

The new logo spells out “Western Australia” on the left-aligned-two-tier-logo version and says “WA” on the center-aligned-three-tier-logo version. That should be enough to show the WA connection.

A Journey of Discovery

The new logo shows a journey inspired by the library. It is a trail across a space. The library inspires ideas that lead people out of the building, and makes them more knowledgeable in the process.

Classic Soulful logo Vs. Modern Minimalist Logo

It has been written by many people, many times that the new brand identities are becoming uniform — because most of the rebranded logos employ monochrome colors, sans-serif typefaces, all caps logotype and straight-lined polygons.

I’m not a big fan of this SLWA logo rebranding yet; but apparently Block Branding, who did the redesign, has followed the latest branding trend and very good reasons for the new SLWA identity!

Some WA Typographic Logos

Relevant Links

1. SLWA: New Brand Identity
2. SLWA Instagram post on the rebranding
3. SLWA X post on the rebranding
4. Campaign Brief: Block’s rebrand of the State Library of WA celebrates individual journeys of discovery
5. Reddit r/Perth discussion on SLWA rebranding

BRAND
CommBank (CBA)

OWNED BY
Commonwealth Bank of Australia

LOGO DESIGNER
M&C Saatchi and Re Agency

OFFICIAL DESIGN BRIEF
“With the work we are doing to reinvent the organisation around a new strategy and values, now is the right time to refresh the iconic diamond, making it lighter, brighter and more dynamic, and inject new meaning into the Can platform.”

“A symbol of optimism fit for the future and one that represents the work we’ve done to be better, the work we still have to do, and the brighter future we are committed to helping Australia achieve.”

LOGO RELEASE
12 October 2020

PREVIOUS LOGOS

This famous “diamond” logo is shaped after a “truly Australian identity” – the stars of the constellation Crux (Southern Cross). The yellow portion linked the five points between each star with the black completing the diamond shape. Unveiling the new logo 30 years ago, the bank described it as “bold, strong, modern and progressive.”

Relevant Links

1. Commonwealth Bank unveils new brand identity
2. CommBank: Evolution not revolution — Monique Macleod, Chief Marketing Officer
3. Brand loyalty: A history of the Commonwealth Bank logo
4. Cato Brand Partners: Instantly known, without saying a word — Commonwealth Bank (1991 Logo Design)

BRAND
Medium

OWNED BY
A Medium Corporation

LOGO DESIGNER
COLLINS

OFFICIAL DESIGN BRIEF
The fundamental concept behind our new design system is language as illustration. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, and on Medium, a thousand words can paint a bigger picture. So in this new system, we use letters and words to construct images, and each image has a unique subtext tied to the concept it’s representing.

The symbol is inspired by language and typography. It is born from the ellipses: a punctuation mark that represents an unfinished or impending thought, an idea to come, what’s next. This is what happens on Medium — there’s always a new idea, always more to the story.

We built off the strengths of our existing wordmark and customized the letterforms to feel more inviting. The lines are smoother, the letters sit tighter for improved readability, and overall, it stands prouder. It’s fundamentally the same Medium wordmark, just with a makeover.

LOGO RELEASE
14 October 2020

PREVIOUS LOGOS

My Opinion

Ellipsis and Ellipses

The ellipsis …, . . ., or (in Unicode) …, also known informally as dot-dot-dot, is a series of (usually three) dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The word, (plural ellipses) originates from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis meaning ‘leave out’.

– Wikipedia

In graphic design, when you change the proportion or position of visual elements, new meanings can be attributed. The ‘ellipsis’ punctuation mark — denoted by three dots — gets recognized when it is used after a sentence (or word). Also, the size of the dots should fall within a limit in relation to the font size. ‘Dots’ can be perfect circles or ellipses as long as they appear as a single unit.

Sadly, the Medium logo is placed ‘before’ the wordmark and it is ‘huge’ compared to the wordmark — it roughly occupies between the font ‘baseline’ and the ‘ascender line.’ So I couldn’t recognize the logo as ‘ellipsis’ till I read the design brief. Am I alone in this? What about you? Leave your thoughts in comments below.

My ‘Quick-fix’ on Medium Logo

The following are my world famous ‘five-minute-fixes’ for the Medium logo. Please bear with me — this is done in jest and it is not my intention to belittle the amazing work done by COLLINS

The size and position of the three ellipses convey that they form an ‘ellipsis’ at the end of the wordmark ‘Medium.’

If you are adamant in keeping the logo at its current position (before the wordmark), can we pack the three dots a little more tighter, scale them up and cut them in half? Let’s follow the tradition and say that the logo is an abstract form of the alphabet ‘m.’

Basic Geometric Shapes Vs. Uniqueness

It is very difficult to come up with a unique logo when we are only using basic geometric shapes. Somewhere in the world, somebody might have already done that arrangement of graphic elements.

I scaled both the BEEHOME logo and Medium logo to the same size so that I can compare them.

I don’t believe for a moment that this is some kind of plagiarism. This is pure coincidence. It appears that COLLINS and Bakken & Bæck came up with the same logo, independently, for two entirely different brands.

More Ellipses

A Google search on ‘Ellipsis’ logos returned a tonne of results. Here are some notable ones…

So, what’s the moral of the whole story?
A humble punctuation of an ‘ellipsis’ can take unique forms as brand identities eliciting varied meaning.

Peace.

Relevant Links

1. A more expressive Medium — starting with Medium: An introduction to our evolved brand identity
2. @Medium official Twitter thread on new brand identity
3. COLLINS portfolio on Medium rebranding 2020
4. About Medium: Every idea needs a Medium
5. Brand New /UnderConsideration review on Medium Branding 2020
6. Daniel @Howells’ tweet comparing Beehome.design logo with Medium logo 2020
7. Bakken & Bæck portfolio on Bee Home branding
8. MANUAL portfolio on Medium Branding 2017
9. Brand New /UnderConsideration review on Medium Branding 2017
10. Brand New /UnderConsideration review on Medium Branding 2015
11. Beehive Green portfolio on Ellipsis Land Rebranding

BRAND
Universal Pictures

OWNED BY
Comcast | NBC Universal

LOGO DESIGNER
Weta Digital

Click here to download a high resolution logo.

DESIGN BRIEF
The new animated logo design captures Universal’s vision for a contemporary logo that stayed true to the company’s legacy identity of a “global vision.” The visual dynamic of the new logo was inspired by satellite imagery that illustrated a view of the world on a clear night from space. Rather than focusing on the continents and physical boundaries that separate people, the new view is highlighted with tiny points of bright lights that pop across the globe symbolising the thousands of communities brought together by their shared love of film.

LOGO RELEASE
Static: 10 January 2012
Animated: 01 March 2012

PREVIOUS LOGOS

“The Man… The Machine… The Globe…”

The first time ever I saw the logo of Universal Pictures was after the legendary ‘Street Hawk’ episodes telecasted by Doordarshan (Public Service broadcaster of Govt. of India), in our old 14″ Black & White PHILIPS TV (1985). Then I saw an updated version of the logo on a big screen, for the first time in color, just before the the world hit movie ‘Jurassic Park’ (1994 in India).

There are many logos out there featuring the globe. Most of them show latitudes and longitudes (E.g. PEPSICO); some show an abstract earth (E.g. TOTAL SE). There are only very few famous logos featuring the land mass/continents.

Not exactly a globe, but Earth Hour logo uses the photo-realistic earth’s map embossed over the digits of “60+” minutes.

Relevant Links

1. History: 100 Years of Logos: Universal Pictures
2. FaceBook post by Weta Workshop on the logo animation by Weta Digital
3. Closing Logos: Universal Studios
4. PRnewsWire: Universal Pictures Animated Logo
5. PRnewsWire: Universal Pictures 100 Years

BRAND
Yahoo!

OWNED BY
Verizon Media

LOGO DESIGNER
Pentagram

Click here to download a high resolution logo.

DESIGN BRIEF
The identity reflects a new brand strategy for Yahoo that focuses on helping users find a more personalized, customized experience online. With its new products, Yahoo will empower users to better sift out irrelevant parts of the digital world, giving them more control of what they see and when they see it. The strategy positions Yahoo as an “amplification brand,” amplifying the things that matter, helping to “amplify you.” The idea is neatly visualized in Yahoo’s exclamation point, a punctuation mark that literally stands for amplification.

As with the original logo, the new identity captures the voice of a brand named after an exclamation of joy and discovery, and still looks like it should be shouted or yodeled (“yahoOOOOoooo!”). The repeating circles of the “a,” “o”s and the dot on the exclamation point echo of the audio mnemonic of the yodel.

LOGO RELEASE
23 September 2019

PREVIOUS LOGOS

y + ! = y dot. Why not?

Whenever I see a design, I always think what will I do differently, if I had the chance… So, here goes my version of the ‘y!’ monogram.

What do you think?

Angles and Slices

The new wordmark is set in Centra No. 2 Extrabold, and the letters of the logotype have been modified to be more geometric and compact. The exclamation mark has been italicized for emphasis, as it has been in every iteration of the logo since the company’s founding. The “y” and “!” of the logo are both set at an angle of 22.5 degrees, a forward tilt that suggests a sense of momentum and excitement. The angle––precisely 1/16th of a circle––is the basis for visual language built around angles and incremental slices.

The identity appears in purple, Yahoo’s signature color since 2003. (Internally, the rebranding was called “Project Purple.”) The designers refined the palette and made it more contemporary, selecting a primary purple (a bright shade they called “grape jelly”) and secondary purples (“hulk pants” and “malbec”), as well as accent colors.

Pentagram on Yahoo! Redesign project

One interesting thing popped up while looking at the ‘y!’ monogram was that Pentagram is talking about ‘angles’ and ‘slices’ as a new design trend. This time around, they are talking about 22.5 degrees of angle (from the vertical).

But this is nothing new! Every other logo you stumble upon daily is an italicized one.

Inspiring! Let me go offline now to create a logo with an inclination of 20 something degrees!

Exclamation Marks!

Relevant Links

1. Yahoo! logo redesign case study by Pentagram
2. Yahoo! logo redesign portfolio by Pentagram
3. Yahoo! on the new logo
4. Ya… who? Logo review by Brand New | UnderConsideration