A not-so-new Logo

Recently, Olympic Airlines, which was owned by the Greek government, was sold to private investors. To symbol this change, the company held a contest to refine their logo. They wanted to signal a change in their culture and offering.
The guidelines for the change did not leave much room for creativity. These were the guidelines designers had to follow:
[The Olympic Air logo] Should retain the circle motif used in the old Olympic logo.
Could be designed using any font and any colors.
Should “give a nod” to the old logo, showing the development as well as the tradition of the airline.
Should be flexible and recognizable.
Should be modern, without being extreme.
Should not show its age.
Should be usable in all media, and in color as well as in black and white
As a result of the contest, and after thousands of votes, Olympic Airlines had its winner.
On the left is the old and the right is the new. Big difference right? On quick glance you may not even notice the subtle differences (besides perhaps the change from airlines to simply air). However, looking a bit closer you may see the changes made. The new one is a tad bit more modern than the old. The font is generally the same, just a bit thinner than the old. The thinner font makes it look more italic, implying flight or movement. Also, I think the darker blue gives the airline a more corporate look.
Below is the runners up in the contest.These logos show a sharper change from the older one. They look more fun than the logo that ended up winning. Perhaps it was too much of a change i guess.

Current Event: Logo Design And Branding Trends 2009

Now, I know half of 2009 is already gone, but in order to keep up with the design world, observing logo design and branding trends of 2009 is a must. According to the article Logo Design & Branding Trends 2009, 2009 is pushing for "more is the new less"; this much is obvious as we scrutinize the various logo designs and branding trends that the author of this article has selected.

In the article, the author pinpoints nine trends of 2009: psychedelic pop backgrounds, origami, tactile logos, arabesque, classic modernism, pictograms, 80's geometry lesson, typography logos, street art and puzzle patterns. With each trend, the author describes them and shows pictures to illustrate said trend. Of all trends, my favorite is the psychedelic pop background trend because I like the many colors that are used, and also because such look appears youthful and slightly bohemian.

After having read the article, I tried to think if any of the new logos that appeared in 2009 followed these so-called trends. It didn't take too long before I spotted that India-based Videocon's new look which came out in July 2009 took on the classic modernism trend. In the same month, the City of Melbourne also had a new logo to replace their previous logo designed in the 1990s, and its new logo seemed to have taken on the origami trend. In May 2009, Target's private brand Up & Up also followed one of 2009's logo design trend which is pictograms.



What really pulled my interest in this article is not the article itself but the numerous comments that were posted up. There were quite a few commentors who said that these new trends were in fact not "new" at all and were not original and there were others who said that there shouldn't be trends for logos as logos are supposed to look iconic and timeless or companies would have to change their logos every so often.

In a nutshell, although the article did shed some insight on some interesting logo designs, I have to agree with some of the comments posted in the article. Trend or no trend, I think that the ultimate goal of a logo is to represent whatever it's supposed to represent, and to represent them well.

Image source: Logo Design & Branding Trends 2009, Brand New