branding
Latest
The Android logo gets a new look and a 3D bugdroid
Android 14 is fast approaching. But before Google publicly releases the next big version of the mobile operating system alongside its latest Pixel devices, the company has revealed a refreshed Android logo.
Olympus cameras will be rebranded as OM System
OM Digital is working on an interchangeable lens camera based on the Micro Four Thirds system.
GM modernizes its logo to highlight its EV-centric future
Look closely, and you might spot the shape of an electrical plug in there.
Intel revamps its logo and five-note audio signature
Intel last changed its logo in 2006, but now it has a new look and soon it will have a "modernized" new sound.
Facebook hopes a new logo will distract you from its problems
The rumors were true: Facebook has decided that a rebranding is in order. The company has introduced a new corporate logo and brand strategy that it hopes will more clearly distinguish Facebook the company and its individual apps. There's not much to say about the logo in question, as it's just "Facebook" written in a a plain (if modern-looking) font. However, the new style theoretically makes the ownership clearer when you see "from Facebook" placed in products from Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and others.
This funky new font is made up entirely of brands
A digital studio called Hello Velocity has created a typeface that embraces well-known corporate logos and is still somehow far less annoying than Comic Sans. The studio says it creates "thought-provoking internet experiences," and its Brand New Roman font is a clever statement on consumerism.
Fossil will sell BMW-branded smartwatches next year
BMW is moving into the smartwatch game, but it's not actually making the devices itself. Instead, Fossil has struck a five-year deal to create BMW-branded watches and smartwatches, as part of its seemingly never-ending quest to offer a smartwatch for everyone's taste.
Uber is deeply integrating with other apps
Uber has been pushing to get its services better integrated into third-party apps in recent years, and new widget and branding features will bring a more complete experience than ever before.
Facebook has a new logo, but the differences are subtle
Facebook's last logo update came in 2005, but this year, the folks in Menlo Park felt it was time for a change. While the iconic white "f" and blue square will remain, places where the full name is used will see this new wordmark. Working with Eric Olson of Process Type Foundry, Facebook's in-house designers created custom lettering to make the logo "feel more friendly and approachable," according to creative director Josh Higgins. Olson's Klavika typeface was used in the current mark, and collaborating with him makes sense given the changes. "While we explored many directions, ultimately we decided that we only needed an update, and not a full redesign," Higgins explained. That decision seems like a good move, since the current logo is so recognizable after 10 years of use.
Microsoft is finally dropping the 'Nokia' from Lumia
Over a year after the acquisition was first announced, Microsoft is officially replacing the Nokia Lumia brand. In a blog post today, the software giant revealed its upcoming smartphones will now be known as Microsoft Lumia. The new Microsoft branding will appear on future phones from the company, with a plain black version of the company's four-squared logo also set to make an appearance.
Microsoft will reportedly omit Nokia branding on future devices
We've been wondering how Microsoft would coordinate Nokia and Lumia branding after purchasing the Finnish phone maker's handset business earlier this year. Well, according to an internal document obtained by GeekOnGadgets, we'll see changes take place soon. For starters, Nokia will be dropped from upcoming gadgets, but the Lumia moniker will remain. The report states that the Lumia 830 and 730 will be the last two handsets to feature Nokia's livery. What's more, it seems Windows Phone stands to be trimmed down to just Windows, bringing the mobile and desktop operating systems under the same designation. The decision to omit "Phone" isn't too much of a surprise though, as the recent HTC One (M8) for Windows already did just that.
Instagram toughens brand guidelines to discourage lookalike services
Like many developers, Instagram defends itself against clone apps and other clear abuses of its image. However, the photo-focused social network is now cracking down on subtler variations of its branding. The company has updated its brand guidelines to forbid Instagram-compatible services from including "insta" or "gram" in their names; they also can't use modifications of Instagram's signature logo. These similar-looking offerings could be mistaken for officially endorsed products, according to Instagram. The firm isn't taking any offenses lightly, either. In a notice to Luxogram that was obtained by TechCrunch, Instagram asked for a response to its concerns within 48 hours, and required both logo and name changes within a "reasonable period." Given the abundance of third-party developers that lean on the Instagram name to lure customers, the tougher policy could spark some confusion as companies rebrand their services en masse.
Yahoo to reveal new logo next month, send off current one with daily tribute
Since taking on Marissa Mayer as CEO last year, Yahoo's kept itself occupied with purchasing Tumblr, giving Flickr a facelift, redesigning its email service, fine-tuning its fantasy sports solution and much more. Citing a renewed sense of progress, the company's announced it's taking up a new logo that'll evolve "the essence" of the brand accordingly. While the fresh design won't be unveiled until September 5th, Yahoo will show off a unique take on its current logo -- like the one above -- for the next 30 days throughout its homepage and network of sites. Don't expect a radical departure from its roots, however. An exclamation mark, the color purple and the hallmark yodel will all be a part of the new branding.
Draw Something turns one under Zynga's banner, celebrates 100 million downloads
It's hard to believe that it's only been one year since Draw Something debuted on the App Store. Few apps have run the full cycle of popularity faster than Draw Something, which started as a huge word-of-mouth release before being acquired by Zynga. A year later, many iOS gamers have Draw Something in their rearview mirrors, but the executive in charge of the game says it's not over yet. Dan Porter is the CEO behind Draw Something's original developer. He now serves as a VP and General Manager at Zynga. Porter recently spoke with Mashable about what's going on with the game these days. Even though Draw Something has fallen out of the public eye, Porter notes, the game continues to be very popular with more than 11 billion drawings created, and more than 28,000 years of game play contributed by players. Traffic has leveled off, admits Porter, but the game still has a sizable amount of daily active users and has topped 100 million downloads. So how can Draw Something regain the limelight it once enjoyed? Porter didn't share Zynga's plans, but he says there are some surprises in the pipeline, while name-dropping both Coca-Cola and kryptonite. So, more branding deals and corporate partnerships, I'd guess. Here's an interesting thought experiment: If you were running Draw Something, how would you get it back to its initial popularity? If it were me, I'd slim the app back down. The Zynga purchase has added all sorts of crufty nonsense to the experience and the initial popularity was based on just how simple and fun the original game was. At the same time, though, I'd also build out the metagame a little bit. The core back-and-forth drawing game should stay simple, but I'd add some progression elements like goals and achievements to keep veteran players interested. Finally, I'd rebrand it as a newer, better version ("Draw Something Else," maybe?), just because I think the original Draw Something brand was hurt so much by the Zynga acquisition. But we'll have to see what Porter and his team have planned. He says that despite the well-publicized transition, they're still all together and hard at work on improving the game.
The Daily Grind: Do you like game-branded peripherals?
One of the unusual perks of being a game journalist is that you acquire a set of branded and unique USB flash drives. Aside from the pictured Final Fantasy XIV drive (which is far and away the strangest flash drive I've ever seen), I also have a World of Tanks die-cast USB drive that I'm quite fond of. Of course, it no longer contains any data even remotely related to World of Tanks, which makes all of that branding on the outside a lie. For this reason I'm always a bit iffy on using peripherals that have prominent branding for specific games. I'd feel pretty ridiculous if I were using a World of Warcraft-branded mouse at the moment when I'm not playing the game, for instance. But what about you? Do you like game-branded peripherals, or do you prefer that your computer accessories are neutral and perhaps even austere? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
CEOh no he didn't!: Rahul Sood heckles HP over strangely named Envy h8 PC
It's no secret that Rahul Sood, who now runs Microsoft's Bing Fund, feels a twinge of bitterness towards his previous employer. Having worked for HP until 2010, and having endowed it with the Envy sub-brand, he's since been forced to watch from the sidelines while the mothership floundered. But it's not the u-turns or bad investments that have jerked Sood's chain this time -- it's actually the slightly awkward (and potentially emotional) branding of a model in HP's desktop range. After seeing details of the product pop up online, he tweeted: "Thought I'd seen everything... then I saw the 'HP ENVY H8' desktop... what the heck guys? Is this code for I give up?" Tom's Hardware reached out to Sood for an explanation and got a carefully-worded response in which he implied that HP has become preoccupied with the "logo on the box" at the expense of "culture" and "community." Meanwhile, the old Pavilion h8 has somehow slipped by unnoticed.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The passion for City of Heroes
Chronicling the last months of City of Heroes has been a strange ride. A sad one, certainly, and that's part of it, but it's also just been strange in certain ways, such as how every single column on the subject -- and I do mean every single one -- has garnered at least one person acting shocked that this column would continue to cover the game on the way to its shutdown instead of just throwing in the towel back in October or something. I really don't get that, considering that this column has been running for nearly three years without interruption, even when I had to send the text off to someone else because I was out of power due to a hurricane. There's no way I'm not going the last few feet. But I think some of it comes down to not understanding what about the game makes some of the players so passionate about the city. Passion is a lot of things, none of them logical. It's not possible to just point to items on a list and say, "I'm passionate because of that." But I can try to outline what's made the game so special beyond just its length of operation, and I'll do the best I can with today's column.
Apple is number two global brand
Brand consultancy firm Interbrand conducts a survey of the "Best Global Brands," and this year Apple is in the number two spot, second only to Coca-Cola. That's a big leap from Apple's eight-place finish in 2011. In this most recent survey, Apple jumped ahead of Intel, McDonald's, GE, Google, Microsoft and IBM to take the number two position. If you go back to 2009, you'd find Apple has jumped 18 spots in three years. According to the survey, Apple's brand value has reached an estimated $76.5 billion.
Interbrand: Apple, Amazon, Samsung fast becoming brand darlings, ousting crusty traditional labels
Interbrand likes to give the world's top companies a brand value, or a mix of their on-the-ground fiscal performance with an estimate of the premium they can ask through name alone. While there are a lot of traditional names in the consulting company's 2012 list, the surprise this year is just how aggressively technology has invaded the top of the charts. It's a good year to be a part of the mobile ecosystem: a very profitable Apple was by far the fastest grower and clinched second place in the list behind only Coca-Cola, while Kindle Fire creator Amazon (20th place) and Apple's frequent rival Samsung (ninth) also shot past brands as big as Disney and Toyota. A special nod goes out to 69th-place Facebook, whose IPO this year and its recognition put it past companies like Porsche almost overnight. Not everyone in technology came out a winner -- Microsoft, Nokia and RIM were among those that took a bruising -- but Interbrand's rankings hint that it's better to be making tablets than designer handbags.
This is the Modem World: Why we fight
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I think I figured out why we love to argue about technology. It came to me via the wisdom of my mom, not surprisingly. It started last Sunday, when I was at her house to mooch some lunch while helping her get photos off of her digital camera and onto a sharing site so she could, ahem, share them. She was complaining that younger generations won't have photo albums, those lovely, physical relics of days gone by that mother and son can pore over and share memories. "But, we'll have Facebook Timelines," I replied, sheepishly. She glared. I glared back.
