Take a gander at Microsoft’s brand new logo. Shortly after revealing the Windows 8 logo, Microsoft is revamping its corporate image with this modern look that incorporates a grey logotype (the name Microsoft) and a multicolored symbol (the red-green-blue-yellow flattened window). The branding “signal[s] the heritage but also signal[s] the future–a newness and freshness,” says Microsoft’s general manager of brand strategy Jeff Hansen. This marks the fourth time the Windows makers redesigned their logo, and the first time in 25 years. With Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Office 2013 on the horizon (and Xbox matching its Dashboard to the desktop/laptop/tablet and mobile OS’), there really hasn’t been a better time for Microsoft to pull this off. Me likey; what do you think of the fresh new look? Hop after the break to see all of MS’ brands animate.
Sony Style is a thing of the past. On April 1 Sony opened to the public the very first, totally redesigned Sony retail experience in Los Angeles and they’re calling–drumroll, please–the Sony Store. The press release details the new design quite nicely:
The new store was designed in collaboration with Klein Dytham architecture (KDa). It features a bright, open, inviting space, with products displayed on tables so that consumers can personally interact and engage with them like they would in a home environment. The layout of the store is flexible, with movable interior walls and changeable color schemes so that it can be adapted and reconfigured to highlight specific products, services, or content to engage and delight customers with fresh experiences each time they return.
The wide open store packs some really cool electronics, all made by Sony of course. Inside you’ll be able to interact with 3DTVs, 3D-capable Vaio laptops, PS3 games (with Move), digital cameras, Google TV, and so on and so forth. You’ll also spot the RayModeler, “a futuristic 360-degree display prototype that projects a 3D image that can be seen from all angles.” In the music section you can test out the Walkman and compare sound with Sony’s catalog of headphones; customers are allowed to test out the headphones on the Walkmans and their personal MP3 players. The TV section is walled with the latest and greatest Sony HDTVs and what’s neat is that every set’s price and specs are digitally labeled in the right-hand corner of each screen. And then there’s The Cube, a personal home theater dumped in the middle of the store.
The new Sony Store sounds like tech heaven, doesn’t it? Watch the video above to get a feel for the new design, and if you live in LA you can experience it first-hand by visiting the first rebranded store which is located at the Westfield Century City mall. In time all Sony Style retail locations will switch over to the new moniker, and the company plans on unleashing these new retail experiences nationwide and internationally after gaining customer feedback from the LA launch. Official PR after the break.
According to Brandchannel, a division of global branding agency Interbrand, Apple products can be found in 30 percent of the top movies at the U.S. box office in 2010. Last year delivered 33 high-grossing films that made it to #1 in the box office; Apple products appeared in 10 of them, so now you can see where that percentage comes from. Of the 591 brands identified in the #1 flicks, Apple was clearly the most dominant. Its product placement leadership over the years, however, has been on the decline. After reaching its product placement peak in 2008 (when Apple products showed up in nearly 50 percent (20 of 41) of #1 films), its visibility in those top films dropped about six percent in 2009 (appearing in 19 of 44 films) and a staggering 14 percent in 2010. Hop after the break to see a handy chart put together by Brandchannel that helps visualize things. Though the numbers may be dropping year-over-year, there’s no question that Apple wears the product placement crown. I mean, their products are so pretty, what do you expect?
Other fun facts brought to you by Broadcom… Nike, Chevrolet and Ford tied for second place after Apple, each appearing in 24 percent of the top films; Sony, Dell, Land Rover, and Glock appeared in at least 15 percent of the #1 films; the single movie with the most placements was Iron Man 2 with a whopping 64 brand placements. Click here for more stats.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…the brand new HTML5 logo! In order to take on Flash, the powerful and highly capable open web standard HTML5 must have its own emblem to show off its sleekness, right? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created the new branding and if the community at large embraces the logo it will adopt it as its own official logo for HTML5 in Q1 2011. W3C even came up with these endearing words to stand behind the standard:
It stands strong and true, resilient and universal as the markup you write. It shines as bright and as bold as the forward-thinking, dedicated web developers you are. It’s the standard’s standard, a pennant for progress. And it certainly doesn’t use tables for layout.
We present an HTML5 logo.
In addition to creating the HTML5 logo, W3C made up icons for eight high level technology classes enabled by the HTML5 technologies. They too are snazzy so check ’em out in the gallery below.
From the beginning of time the great battle between ATI and NVIDIA computer graphics cards maintained strength as both sides of the competition continually upped one another with new, advanced graphics technologies. There certainly were times when one company would surpass the other for extended periods of time, but there’s no denying that the graphics arms race between ATI and NVIDIA still remains hotted debate to this day. But on this day, things are about to change ever so slightly. When computer processor manufacturer AMD bought ATI Technologies in 2006, AMD thought it was appropriate to keep the ATI brand alive alongside the AMD name, likely because so many consumers and business partners were so aware of that brand leading up to that point. Today AMD decided to cut ties with the ATI brand, and starting “later this year” all new graphics chips will be branded with the letters AMD only. AMD Radion and FirePro (see images above) will become the new logos plastered on new graphics chips. Exisiting products will not see a name change (ie. “ATI Radeon” chips, such as the Radeon HD 5000 series, will not be renamed). What led to this decision, you ask? AMD market research findings has an answer for you:
1) AMD brand preference triples when the person surveyed is aware of the ATI-AMD merger.
2) The AMD brand is viewed as stronger than ATI when compared to graphics competitors.
3) The Radeon and Fire Pro brands themselves (without ATI being attached to them) are very high as is.
It has also been reported that the death of ATI branding comes at a time when AMD is readying their hybrid CPU and GPU chips, and Engadget logically points out that would be beneficial to have a “unified branding strategy” during this sensitive transition period from one technology to another. Long live ATI!
