Johnson & Johnson’s Band-Aids have been around since 1920 and it feels like its logo has been around even longer. But now the iconic brand owned by Johnson & Johnson is changing its look a wee bit, something that hasn’t happened since the ‘80s.

There’s a new logo coming soon to a scraped knee near you. It's designed by Kevin Dresser of the New York design firm Dresser Johnson. The challenge: Since the iconic Band-Aid logo has been around for so long, the hope with the redesign is to show that the adhesive bandage has “a new direction that represented the future of the brand.” So Dresser created “a bolder, more distinctive look that better stands out on drugstore shelves,” J&J's press release notes.

"My goal for the logo restoration was to create a timeless design," stated Dresser. "Band-Aid is an iconic American brand. I wanted to honor that heritage and at the same time create something that feels contemporary and modern."Continue reading...

For a few years now in India, PepsiCo has been making its snacks with rice-bran oil, a fact that allowed it to stick a “snack smart” logo on the packaging. After all, the snacks then “had 40% less saturated fat, zero trans fats and no added monosodium glutamate,” the Economic Times reports. The publication notes that the company made various pronouncements “across various multimedia campaigns” about the oil switch back in 2007.

Well, that was then. Recently, the company didn’t bother to use those various multimedia campaigns to let folks know about a different switch: a return to the original, cheaper palm oil. It simply removed the logo from such products as Lay’s chips, Krukure, Uncle Chipps, and Cheetos.

Three officials tell the Times that the switch was driven by a cost-saving measure — stop using the pricier rice-bran oil because it wasn't driving sales. No rice bran oil; no snack smart logo. "Our analysis of consumer feedback on the use of rice bran oil showed that the consumer did not show any added preference to the use of rice bran oil," a PepsiCo spokesman told ET.Continue reading...

Perhaps you thought the Jaguar brand was dead. The luxury-car manufacturer most certainly doesn’t want you to think that — hence its new "Alive" marketing campaign and roaring "Machines" TV commercial.

As part of that effort, Jaguar’s biggest marketing push since being sold to India’s Tata by Ford in 2008, the automaker also has redesigned its logo. The shiny metallic logo extends to a reflective new font for the Jaguar name below the brand's iconic leaping jaguar.

Thoughts on the corporate identity? Post yours below.

Back in 1977, when Apple Computers was just getting started, Steve Jobs commissioned a graphic designer to come up with a logo better than the one they started with — his only instruction was "Don't make it cute." The rainbow version that was unveiled stuck around until 1998 when the current monochromatic version came into being.

At the introduction of the new iPad Wednesday, VentureBeat noted that when Apple CEO Tim Cook “strolled offstage … a colorful version of the company logo appeared on the screen.” This led more than a few observers to speculate that Apple is returning to its old rainbow-logoed ways, especially since, as VB added, Microsoft recently scrapped its colorful Windows logo “in favor of a new super bland version, which leaves companies like Apple free to resume using the rainbow without fear of having it confused with the competition.”Continue reading...

Google's homepage logo today is a tribute to International Women's Day, celebrated on March 8th since the early 1900's. The Google Doodle (as they call their logo reinterpretations) is driving traffic to the official IWD website for an overview of the range of events and activities taking place around the world today, and you can also participate virtually on Facebook and Twitter (hashtags: #IWD or #IWD12).

One must-read snapshot today comes from the Worldwatch Institute: 12 innovations that are "helping women get access to credit, improve their incomes, feed their families, introduce sustainable crops to markets, and reduce rural poverty."

Google is also inviting students to submit their designs for the annual Doodle 4 Google competition. This year's theme: "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..."

And below, check out how Dove celebrated IWD in Asia.Continue reading...

Paramount Pictures is celebrating its centennial on May 8th with a new logo that debuted in December. If you caught Dr. Seuss' The Lorax you may have noticed Universal Pictures' new animated logo for its 100th anniversary, which is coming up on April 6th.

Created by Weta Digital, it features Brian Tyler's new arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith's classic score. The previous Universal logo premiered with The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997. The Universary is being celebrated throughout 2012 with a Universal100th website featuring such iconic films as To Kill a Mockingbird plus "new films, classic DVDs, essential Blu-Rays, events, online games, competitions, and money-can't-buy prizes." (The Toshiba-sponsored contest's top prize: $1 million paid out as an annuity over 40 years).

Below, watch Universal's new animated logo and trailer promoting its 100th anniversary, along with 100 years of the studio's logos (including the Jurassic Park-introduced logo at :40); a clip of Tyler discussing how he reworked Goldsmith's musical intro to evoke a century of movie moments; and a comparison with Paramount's 100th anniversary logo.Continue reading...

“Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?” asked Pentagram's Paula Scher, the designer behind the new logo for Microsoft's Windows 8.  

The result of that conversation: the new logo for Windows, above right, which is an actual window, slightly angled, and blue. This style is supposed to reflect movement, and the fast pace of the new operating system. If you look back at their old logos, it was always meant to be a window, although throughout the years it mysteriously evolved into a flag, until now.Continue reading...

Boeing has been touting its new snazzy Dreamliner 787 for some time and it is getting closer to the day when passengers will get to feel just what it’s like to experience a little turbulence on a plane that has “an interior environment with higher humidity (and) increased comfort and convenience.”

So Boeing had to take its new baby for a test ride, right? And not just any test ride. As Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle, wrote in a blog post, this “was an 18-hour Maximum ETOPS (Extended Operations) Duration flight test for a 787-8 with GE engines” that had the flight team covering more than 9,000 nautical miles.

If you’re going to have to be flying for that duration, you might as well have some fun in the process, no?Continue reading...