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 company’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.

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.

A few weeks after Arkansas State University (ASU) retired its Indian logo and family mascot, it has unleashed its new mascot design featuring a fierce red wolf.

From Indians, ASU is now officially known as the “Red Wolves”. What is very evident in these new designs is the transformation of identity as aggressive and vicious. This athletics mascot design includes a mean-eyed red wolf baring its teeth and seems ready to fight anytime, anywhere.

Moreover, ASU’s athletic director believes it symbolizes team spirit since wolves always travel in packs. Hopefully, this will foster the bonding among students and staff to support its athletic endeavors. According to ASU Chancellor Robert Potts:

“I considered the fact that we wanted something unique. There are several schools that have a wolf or some variation of that, but none of them are the red wolves. The red wolf was indigenous to this area…they run in packs, they’re noble creatures, but they’re also vicious and aggressive, and that’s something I think we can embrace.”

ASU believes the transition from Indians to Red Wolves is a very lengthy process. Aside from making it available in different marketing materials and merchandise like t-shirts, caps and uniforms, ASU also needs at least 6 months for the makeover of its Indian Stadium and Indian basketball court.

Red wolves are considered endangered species since 1973 and once boomed in Arkansas and Missouri during the 60s.

Via The Herald