Our favorite cable channel for documentaries on technology and history, Discovery Channel, is seeking to refresh its brand identity with the unveiling of its new logo design and tag line.

The new logo’s blue background and the typography are very glaring alterations in this redesign. Of course, Discovery Channel will not drop its distinct globe emblem since it has become an integral part of its brand identity since 1995.

According to the creative team behind this new logo, the biggest challenge is to “preserve the globe that is so integral to the brand, yet find a way to make it even more connected to the name Discovery.” The outcome is the so-called D-globe or the linking of the globe to the letter D to create a new shorthand identifier for future uses. In the words of its designer:

“The new Discovery Channel identity package creates a deeply immersive experience for viewers — one that is bold, unfiltered and fun. We wanted to give the network a powerful, new voice and let their amazing programming shine through.”

Along with the new design is the change of tagline. Its phenomenal and highly memorable “Explore Your World” tagline has become “The World Is Just Awesome”. I feel this is a bit hokey or void of emotional appeal. Even though taglines are almost always changed whenever the logo design changes, perhaps Discovery Channel should have retained its tagline considering its brand recall.

The battle of apple logos is heating up! It turned out Apple Inc., the innovative gadget company famous for Mac, iPod, and iPhone, is not happy with the latest environmental initiative of New York City a.k.a. the Big Apple.

GREENYC, Mayor Bloomberg’s recycling campaign to make this busy city a lot cleaner, healthier and more sustainable, is represented by a logo design featuring an apple shaped like the infinity symbol with a single leaf and a stem.

Now, The Tech Herald reported that Apple wants to monopolize this insignia so it filed a trademark infringement lawsuit with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office arguing it is too similar with its infamous emblem and as a result will lead to “consumer confusion resulting in damage and injury”. Moreover, this logo might hurt the distinctiveness of Apple logo.

Comparing the 2 logo designs, I don’t think it is confusingly similar with the Apple trademark. Perhaps, Apple is just too paranoid that it doesn’t want anybody to use this fruit anymore. Or maybe this is a simple legal ploy to warn other interested parties planning to use apples on their designs. Besides, GREENYC logo is not competing in the consumer electronics category so consumer confusion is very unlikely to occur.

Both parties are no stranger to trademark infringement. Apple had a trademark battle against the Beatles for decades while the government of New York recently accused the Brisbane City Council of copying its “I Love NY” logo.