More and more hospitals and medical services firms are realizing and in fact embracing the power of branding and logo design. Simply because each patient, no matter how serious or trivial the disease, is also a customer with needs (medical care) and wants (comfy room).

That is why it is very important to establish or enhance brand identity and medical logo to get ahead of competition. The hospitals in Grand Rapids area (Michigan) are the recent example of this budding trend. As featured at mlive.com, the three leading hospitals – Spectrum Health, Metro Health, and Saint Mary’s Health Care – have undergone logo makeover and brand identity tweaking.

What is common among these 3 hospitals is that they retained the primary symbol in the logo design. If you scrutinize each logo, you will see that Saint Mary’s retained its cross icon and simply made an enhancement wit its Nike-like swoosh and blue backdrop. According to hospital, they want to hold on to its Catholic roots as the same time position itself as a “a healing organization with progressive technology and progressive physicians.”

Metro Health, on the other hand, has changed both its name and logo design. Dropping its long name i.e. Metropolitan Hospital, it also dropped the number of dots on its crucifix icon. From 16 dots (15 black and 1 red), it is now comprised of 5 big blue dots.

Spectrum is just catching up with the unveiling of its new logo last month or 3 years after the competition. It simply changed its font color to gray and improved its traditional quilt plate icon (though I think that style is being used by a leading IT firm).

UK car manufacturer and GM subsidiary Vauxhall Motors has revamped its car logo design to symbolize its move to enhance its overall brand perception and gear up for the future. The redesign represents Vauxhall’s fresh design philosophy.

Vauxhall™s new car logo represented by a metallic griffin is touted as more dynamic and contemporary with its transition to chrome and black color scheme from its red background. A more distinguishable factor is the addition of Vauxhall™s name in the logo to make it more recognizable.

According to the company’s spokesperson, the griffin is important part of the compan’s heritage but it has a more simplified and cleaner look. In the press release:

“This recent evolution of the brand has resulted in Vauxhall™s incredible sales success over the last three years. Its retail share in the UK has increased significantly, while the manufacturing plants in Luton and Ellesmere Port produced in excess of 220,000 vehicles, with 59 per cent going for export, and the remainder making an important contribution to domestic sales.”

The new logo design will be displayed this coming July in its latest model of Insignia.