Eurostar Group receives a rebrand from DesignStudio

Comprising a new logo, symbol, colour palette, photography, illustration and sonic branding, the new identity brings both companies together under the Eurostar name, which was chosen “due to its powerful equity and global recognition”.

The new branding will launch in full by the end of 2023, and hopes to put a modern face on the Eurostar Group while respecting the heritage of its two brands. “A key part of the success of our partnership was to work closely with Eurostar and Thalys stakeholders to capture the essence of each brand’s near 30-year heritage, whilst evolving them into the future,” says Julien Queyrane, DesignStudio creative director.

The ‘spark’ is intended to be used across the full brand experience – from train livery and across stations, to digital platforms including website, apps, social media and TVCs. The new identity also modernises the Eurostar and Thalys colours, featuring a punchy blue and deep navy, and six secondary colours.

Koto juices up the branding for checkout platform Bolt

Founded in 2014, checkout platform Bolt offers one-click payments for over 300 retailers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in a time of ever-increasing convenience, the company has raised millions of dollars in investment, taking it to the level of a ‘decacorn’ – that’s a startup with a value of $10b+, for readers outside the world of venture capital.

The tech company brought Koto in to overhaul its visual identity and create something that could grab attention in a competitive landscape of “somewhat bland sans-serif wordmarks”, according to Koto creative director Arthur Foliard.

“There was a huge and unprecedented opportunity to stand out from the crowd and to bring more personality into a pretty expected space,” he tells CR. “There’s a reason behind it. Most of these brands want to look secure, but you don’t need to be bland to feel trustworthy. By prioritising feeling safe they all feel the same.”

Even the tail of the @ sign includes a spiky edge, thanks to a bespoke typeface by PangramPangram. In total, says Foliard, there’s 15 electrified glyphs, chosen as the characters users would see most often.

Center Parcs Europe’s rebrand goes back to nature

The green bird and blue type that were the focal point of the holiday brand’s previous identity have been replaced with a softer colour palette and a tree-shaped symbol that DesignStudio says harks back to the company’s mission of reconnecting guests with nature.

Center Parcs Europe – which doesn’t include Center Parcs UK – has 29 holiday destinations across mainland Europe, including Parcs in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium. They offer cottages to stay in as well as a range of  family-focused activities all on site. DesignStudio’s new identity will be rolled out across all of these, with different ‘totems’ used to show the various options at each – for example, a wave for swimming pools, or a pair of palm leaves for the Market Dome, where guests can shop and buy food.

DesignStudio has introduced new typeface Bagoss – made by Displaay Type Foundry – which was chosen for its circular joints and organic terminals, and certainly adds more of a welcoming feel to the branding. Although the focus is on nature, the colour system embraces a nuanced palette, ranging from leafy green and a caramel brown, through to a more vibrant pink and deep blue.

Illustrations by Fuchsia MacAree and photography also helps emphasise this connection with the great outdoors, with shots of tall forests, golden sunsets and misty hills suggesting an enticing experience.

Raise your arches

Credits:
Agency: Leo Burnett
CCO: Chaka Sobhani
ECD: Mark Elwood
Creative Directors: James Millers, Andrew Long
Senior Creative: Gareth Butters
Art Director: Joe Miller
Creative Director of Design: David Allen
Designer: Jakk Breedon
Production Company: Moxie Pictures
Director: Edgar Wright

Thix hair loss brand

Hair loss is big business these days. Given that around 80% of men and 50% of women will experience it in their lives, it’s hardly surprising that the market for products and supplements is booming – to the tune of an estimated $23.6 million globally.

The brand’s visual identity is rooted in the fact that it is “backed by science, not magic”, according to Otherway, the studio behind the new branding. The process began with choosing the brand name itself, which is a combination of the words ‘thick’ and ‘fix’.

Thix’s all-caps wordmark is designed to be unapologetically simple, creating a trusted stamp of authority across what can be a confusing industry for the consumer to navigate.

The rest of the identity is inspired by retro health and beauty packaging from the 70s and 80s, featuring two bold typefaces and a single colour palette of fresh green, referencing the product range’s mint and eucalyptus scent.

Hong Kong food destination Basehall

Since opening in 2020, Basehall has become a hotspot for hungry Hong Kong residents and visitors. So much so that parent company, HongKongLand Properties, recently unveiled a second, larger site in the same building which brings together 13 independent food and drink concepts.

To coincide with its opening, London-based studio Otherway was tasked with rethinking what an East Asian food hall could look like and positioning Basehall as a cultural destination.

The new branding is inspired by Hong Kong’s visual history, featuring a dynamic logo that nods to the city’s ubiquitous street signs and is described by Otherway’s founder.

The design language is built on a grid system which visualises the various layers coming together to create a tapestry, with each restaurant given a unique identity that pays homage to a signature dish or the owners themselves.

Otherway commissioned five illustrators to bring all the individual identities to life. “We wanted to create an area where every vendor had an equal chance of standing out compared to more established food brands. From 60-year-old roast goose shops, to brand new Michelin starred experiences,” says the studio.

otherway.com

Ad campaign tackles everyday gender bias

We might think that we have moved beyond the stereotypes associated with certain careers – for example, that a CEO would be a man, and a nurse a woman – but research conducted by CPB, the ad agency behind the Imagine campaign, shows otherwise.

The Imagine poster campaign, which is supported by Creative Equals, Goodstuff, Assembly and Open Media, is running across the UK on social, OOH and in cinemas. It is accompanied by a colouring book, which can be bought from cpblondon.com (with monies raised going to Beyond Equality and Young Women’s Trust), which encourages parents to talk to their children about gender roles.

Bendy signage courtesy of Fieldwork Facility

The signage is designed to “capture the spirit of play and bring a little bit of joy to the neighbourhood,” according to Fieldwork Facility founder Robin Howie.

Howie says the wayfinding project is designed to echo the net zero pledges of the new London development – which is being led by Barnet Council and UK developer Argent Related, and is designated a Park Town for Future London.

A series of snake-like yellow signs show cyclists and walkers how many minutes are left in their journey, and appear wrapped around lamp posts and growing out of curb-side grass.

“Good, at least in terms of wayfinding, is directing visitors to the development successfully, but great looks like putting a playful little smile on someone’s face or encouraging someone to walk with more of a spring in their step,” says Howie. Quite right too.

Visa launches new brand identity system

Branding agency Mucho revealed the early stages of Visa’s brand evolution 2 summer ago, and the financial services company last year launched the full update to its brand identity system. The agency highlighted that “to most people, Visa has been synonymous with credit and debit cards”, and one of the key aims of the new branding was to “ensure it is seen as more than a credit card company”.

Based on 200 hours of stakeholder conversations, the agency also developed a new mission statement for Visa that leans into brand purpose: “We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere.” This philosophy is tied into the brand symbol, an equals sign, which has been extracted from the recognisable bars that were historically used in the Visa logo lock up prior to 2005. “The symbol has always been there – we just dialed into the opportunity to use it in a creative way,” said Mucho creative director Rob Duncan.

Key to the new branding system was establishing consistency worldwide while helping the existing design elements – such as the Visa wordmark – work harmoniously in digital environments, adjusting colour palettes to work better on digital touchpoints (namely small mobile screens) as part of this.

The agency developed an iconography and illustration system, brought together by the Visa colours (shown below), and worked with Commercial Type on a new typeface, Visa Dialect, which was designed with legibility in digital executions in mind. Mucho also focused on enhancing Visa’s B2B standing with a sleek range of assets using motion design, made with the help of creative studio Field.io.

Take away your takeaway

Takeaway packaging is the third largest source of littering in cities across the world, according to recent research by the University of Cádiz in Spain.

As Norway’s largest takeaway restaurant chain, McDonald’s is a substantial part of the problem in Norwegian cities – and it doesn’t help that its iconic golden arches make its packaging very noticeable. But in a new campaign led by Nord DDB, the fast food chain is taking ownership of this role.

Leading with the message ‘take away your take away’, the campaign is all about showcasing the ugly side of McDonald’s packaging and encouraging fast food lovers to help the brand reduce littering.

Photos of McDonald’s trash lying around in the streets of Oslo have been artfully captured by photographer Jói Kjartans for print, social media, OOH displays and McDonald’s trays in order to reach as many customers as possible.

Trash cans have been placed next to OOH displays so that the golden arches can be used as a trash-guide, and the campaign also includes a commercial shown on TV and online. As for the longer term, the brand has initiated several measures to create long-term solutions.