INTL. REVIEW BY Régis Frias POSTED BY Brand New

The Cielo is the Limit

With 1.6 million affiliated merchants, Visanet, one of the largest electronic payments networks in the world and the biggest in Brazil, and owned by three banks — Bradesco, Banco do Brasil and Santander, which happen to be competitors — anounced last Novemeber a new name: Cielo. The reason behind this change is that on June 2010 in Brazil Visanet will have multiple credit card brand marks in its portfolio. In other words, Visanet will start dealing Visa and MasterCard, so there could be a confusion if it was still called VisaNet.

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BY Armin

A Leaf Grows on the Road

Sysco is the largest distributor of food-service related items in the U.S., with approximately 9,000 trucks delivering all sorts of food (frozen, canned, produce) as well as tableware and kitchen equipment to restaurants, fast food chains, colleges, hospitals and hotels. Last month Sysco unveiled a new identity to replace its 38-year-old cube logo used since its inception, which was quite a work of art (not) in its attempt to make the most clever interpretation of the acronym for Systems and Services Company. The new logo does away with the acronym and turns it into a proper name by going with the friendlier “Sysco” building on the familiarity of the name and surely the lack of anyone asking what SYSCO stood for. The new logo is meant to emphasize Sysco’s commitment to sustainability and delivering quality products. I very much like this new logo — I would have probably chosen another typeface (Gotham for all you haters!) and drawn the leaf differently but it doesn’t really matter — as it creates a memorable logo from a very simple typographic treatment. I hate the tag-line being shoved in there so tightly and being so dependent of the logo. A great improvement overall.

Thanks to Hsu Cennatian for the tip.

BY Armin

Mexican Carrier Pigeon

To stay within the theme of postal services, we now turn our attention to Mexico’s Servicio Postal Mexicano (Mexican Postal Service) that recently announced a major change in name to Correos de México (more or less Mail of Mexico), identity and services. For the more than twenty-one years I lived in Mexico I think I sent no more than five letters through the postal service. In part because at that age I had no one to send letters to but also because it just didn’t feel like anything would get anywhere, as it’s a slow under-developed service and most people pay their bills by going to the bank or to the utility’s offices. Even now, when I send Holiday cards from the U.S. I am always surprised that they get to their final destination before the beginning of a new year. Just to give you an example of the difference in use of the postal service: For each citizen Mexico delivers seven letters a year, and the U.S. delivers 700, granted, a lot of it are coupons and offers to credit cards with low-interest rates, but still.

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BY Armin

Norway Blows its Horn

Experiencing continuous growth as it has acquired many organizations in more than a decade, Norway Post launched a new identity that is now part of a bigger family of brands under the new parent company, Bring. A press release has all the information necessary about the set-up of the new company, along with plenty of numbers that establish the importance and relevance of Norway Post and its different branches.

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BY Armin

Start with Trust, Simmer in Design, Hold the Onion

I have had bad service in the past: At restaurants with rude waiters, on the phone with neglectful customer representatives, in cabs with plugged-to-their-cell-phone reckless drivers, and in a myriad other establishments. I never complain to the manager or a higher authority, I just don’t have the patience or the time — a well-intoned “screw you”, plus a mean stare with my bushy eyebrows and knowing that karma will eventually have its way is usually satisfaction enough. But for one in five adult consumers in the U.S. this is not enough: Just in 2006, 1.2 million complaints were handled by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the “leader in advancing marketplace trust”. With a new logo and tagline, Start With Trust, the BBB is hoping to extend its equity as the most reliable and trusted source of information when it comes to filtering good from bad businesses. The most public manifestation of the BBB is their “Seal Program” where businesses, previously scrutinized and approved, have the honor and privilege of sporting the seal — which, I have to admit, has proven the biggest enticement for further complaining anytime I see it on a store’s entrance or web site — but is usually lumped together with signs that indicate that Discover cards are accepted. So the BBB’s campaign will hopefully result in a higher appreciation of this seal, both by consumer and owner. A task perhaps facilitated by a fresh new logo. Gone is the onion on top of the widest torch ever created and the chunky serifs that formed some interesting negative spaces in the endless BBBBBBnes of the logo. And in is a new take on the torch — which may be, along with hands, one of the hardest things to draw as a logo — that now looks (and smells) like a well-brewed stew of Excellence, Integrity, Teamwork, Trust and Respect (the BBB’s values) simmering in a soup plate (unless someone sees the handle of the torch, and don’t tell me it’s the second B because, even though it is, it visually doesn’t work). Replacing the old Bs are a new triad of sans serif Bs that feel a little better suited for the job and less distracting in their repetitiveness. I’m not sure this was the best direction and execution of the logo, but as a replacement to a logo that had been in use since 1962, this may be a better option… And I’m not one to complain.

Thanks to Bart L. O’Dell for the tip.

BY David Weinberger

Suddenly a Dragon Appeared Out of Nowhere

Wow. This is a huge departure. I am always amazed and pleased when a company which never embraced design, suddenly realizes what it and branding can do for them. It doesn’t just take insight, but it takes guts and quite a budget as well.

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