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Mergers & Executions (Bloomberg Businessweek)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/mergers_executions.php
BusinessWeek, a weekly periodical catering to the business community (go figure), was recently acquired by Bloomberg Media from their previous owner, McGraw-Hill. Financial pundits saw this as a quick route for Bloomberg, the successful, finance-oriented media outlet started by the mayor of New York, to a strong presence in print. Their name now graces the living rooms and reception areas of millions of homes and businesses across the world, announcing its debut by turning a new page in BusinessWeek’s 80-year history.

Museums are for Squares (Museum of Science & Industry)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/museums_are_for_squares.php
The Museum of Science and Industry, situated on Chicago’s storied Lake Shore Drive, is a true city landmark. I grew up visiting the museum with my grandmother and can vividly remember how interactive and engaging the exhibits were. To this day, it’s the only museum I know of where you can watch actual chickens being being born any day of the week.

Circle Gets the Square (Bank of Taipei)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/circle_gets_the_square.php
It’s been fifty years since Chermayeff & Geismar unleashed their modern Chase logo on the stodgy, unsuspecting world of bank branding. They were unique to suggest an institution like Chase use an austere, geometric and non-literal symbol as their mark. To help celebrate this momentous anniversary Chermayeff is launching their newest creation, the redesign of the Bank of Taipei brand—half a century later—with another four-sided trademark, this time with softer shapes and a softer shade of blue.

THIS AMERI-CAN LIFE (This American Life)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/this_amer-ican_life.php
This American Life, the mesmerizing, hour-long NPR radio program and podcast about nothing and everything unveiled their new identity earlier this month. It will soon grace everything from podcast icons to tote bags (and hopefully book spines given the vertical nature of the lockup). The show, which is produced in Chicago and recorded in Manhattan, is hosted by the incomparable Ira Glass.

Commerzbank Folds (Commerzbank)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/commerzbank_folds.php
The sweeping consolidation of banks worldwide continues with the merger of Germany’s second and third largest financial institutions: Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank. The new entity, to be named Commerzbank, has enlisted the talented, local and proven (though Erik-Spiekermann-less) design firm Meta to perform the brand alchemy. For all to see, the result is clean, rational and undeniably German.

The Logo Olympics (Olympic Air)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/the_logo_olympics.php
Olympic Airlines, once the national airline of Greece, has recently been sold by the Greek government to a private investment group. The new logo and name (now shortened in the 1980s fashion to Olympic Air) are supposed to signal a change in the company’s culture and offering. To that end the company has held a grand logo contest in the Olympic tradition of competition. Read on to see who took home the silver and bronze.

Chicken Now now Chickenow (Chickenow)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/chicken_now_now_chickenow.php
Chicken Now is a food court franchise that supplies chicken-based snacks for mid-mall snacking. Pentagram Austin, fresh off their recent Popeyes work, has helped them to rename and rebrand their popular (in the Southwest, at least) retail offering. And now for some Chickenow.

Heartless Ice Cream (Good Humor)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/heartless_ice_cream.php
Summer may be winding down but the Good Humor truck is here to stay. The popular ice cream maker you might remember from such frozen hits as Strawberry Shortcake, Toasted Almond and Chocolate Eclair launched a rebrand earlier this year. It will adorn snack cart umbrellas, swimming pool menus and packages in the freezer aisle. But where’s the heart?

Don’t Rock the Boat (AIG/Chartis)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/dont_rock_the_boat.php
Last year, when AIG lost $99 billion, its property-casualty division, AIU, turned a modest $2 billion profit. This year, AIG is repackaging AIU and a few other entities into an independent operation that it will most likely sell in order to repay the staggering amount of money it owes the American government and its taxpayers. The new spin-off, introduced last month as Chartis, appears to have been engineered as a straightforward, unremarkable brand that has absolutely nothing to do with AIG.

Neutron (Tron)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/neutron.php
It might be called Legacy but this is not your grandmother’s Tron. When Steven Lisberger’s epic film came out in 1982 it was groundbreaking in its imagination and extensive in its use of computer-generated imagery. Tron leveraged the most cutting edge CG available to portray the intimate inner-workings of a vast network of computers. Inside these circuits were forgotten applications and wayward human beings battling each other for the amusement of a sinister mainframe overlord. Initial reviews accused the film of putting visual effects ahead of storyline: style above substance. The original logo supports this argument.

We’re Going to Pump… [Clap!]… Your Logo Up! (American Gladiators)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/were_going_to_pump_clap_your_l.php
My best friend from high school wants to be the next American Gladiator, and I can’t blame him. He called me last month to mention he was applying, and asked if I would critique his video audition. Now Jon is not the most athletic person (as his video serves to illustrate), but it’s clear to me why he wants to take part in the reincarnation of one of television’s most engaging, wholesome, unpretentious and downright zany entertainment-sports franchises of our time. And as we all know, with new leotards come new brands.