Opinion BY Armin

Boom Goes the Cloud

In Beta and Alpha versions last year, CX (formerly Cloud Experience), a “cloud storage and data file management system,” launched this month. Aiming to compete against Dropbox, CX allows users to sync their files, e-mail, and calendar on the magic place that is the cloud and they are trying to do it with more graphic and social media flair than Dropbox. Their new identity has been designed by Moving Brands.

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A B-Side BY Armin

SunRun

Established in 2007, SunRun is one of the leading providers of home solar services in the U.S. with over 15,000 customers. A new, more apocalyptic looking logo was introduced in January.

Thanks to Alden Woodrow for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

Corel

Established in 1989 with the launch of CorelDraw, Corel is a software developer “with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries.” None of which are graphic designers, unless you count using CorelDraw as a punchline for bad graphics. The new logo was introduced back in April or May of 2011. Not sure how we missed it. Story here.

Thanks to Nodws for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

NYC Media Lab

Launched this year by a partnership of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, NYU-Poly, and Columbia University, NYC Media Lab is a “public-private partnership encompassing all the universities of NYC. The Lab tackles the big questions facing the media industry today, with the goal of generating research, knowledge transfer, talent development, R&D, and new business models.” The identity was designed by Brooklyn-based Red Antler. Their project page here and some applications below (or after the jump).

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A B-Side BY Armin

Meebo

Launched in 2005, Meebo is a “consumer internet company that organizes the web around people, and helps build out their interest graph for easy, faster access to relevant info on the web.” They recently relaunched their service and are sporting a new logo.

Thanks to Andrew Watterson for the tip.

Follow-Up BY Armin

Follow-Up: HP

I received the following statement from an HP spokesperson in regards to the potential new logo we covered on Wednesday:

In 2008, HP asked marketing agency Moving Brands to propose new ideas for various elements of HP’s brand identity, including fonts, graphics, and logos.

HP is one of the world’s most valuable brands and has no plans to adopt the new logo proposed by Moving Brands. HP did implement some of the other design elements shown in the case study.

So there you have it folks: no new HP logo.

Opinion BY Armin

StumbleUpon Stumbles on Hidden Shape

Launched in 2001, StumbleUpon is a discovery site where registered users — 20 million of them at last count — can share, rate, explore, and “stumble” upon web pages of their specific interests. StumbleUpon was the de facto site for random-ish web browsing before sites like Digg and Reddit surfaced as competition in the mid aughts and while all these three shared a crappy design aesthetic and functionality they co-existed well but with the relatively more finessed approach of Facebook and Twitter, StumbleUpon now feels like a relic of the original dot-com era. Today, StumbleUpon is relaunching its service with new functionality and services, designed by Huge. Along with this comes a new logo.

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A B-Side BY Armin

MediaOcean

MediaOcean is a new company that is the result of the merger of Donovan Data Systems Inc and MediaBank LLC. Their combined value is reported at $1.5 billion and together will process $150 billion in global advertising spending annually. MediaOcean “provides software that lets ad agencies book advertising time, make sure those ads appear properly, bill clients and pay the media platforms that host the ads.” Press release here.

Thanks to Anon Ymouse (for real) for the tip.

A B-Side BY Armin

FIA-NET

FIA-NET provides e-commerce solutions for websites in France and its logo is an assurance that a shopping transaction is secure. A new identity has been created by Lyon- and Paris-based Graphéine. A lengthy post (in French) explaining the redesign here. The new brand architecture can be seen below (or after the jump).

Opinion BY Armin

Ready. Aim. Chat!

Released in 1997, AIM, short for AOL Instant Messenger, was the original IM-ing choice for the first mass generation of internet users, making it the one socially acceptable product from AOL one could use without losing his or her cred. Even with the onslaught of instant message features in Gmail and Facebook and major applications like Skype and Apple’s own Chat, AIM has somehow managed to keep its spot — or at least a spot — in the market. Lacking any serious updates in recent years, AOL is completely rebooting AIM, launching a new version this week with mobile apps for the iPhone and Android, desktop clients for Mac and PC, and a site for chatting directly on your browser. With this a new logo has also been introduced.

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