The 2011 Brand New Awards storefront is now open. The winners are available for consumption in book form and as a full-on, iPad friendly website — both of which you have to pay for, yes. All details are in the link above. Thanks all for your patience on this.
Call for entries for the next edition of the Brand New Awards will open early January.
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After a slight delay on our part, the 2011 Brand New Awards book is now in stock. We are still finishing up a proper storefront and photographing the book so all we have to convince you is the preview video above. In the meantime, we are going to have a short pre-order period until Wednesday October 17 with 20% off the retail price of $ 34.99 (so a total of $ 27.99 right now). Pre-orders will start shipping at the end of next week.
NOTE: This year there will not be an iPad app. Nor the year after that, until further notice. BUT there will be a paid-access website, with very similar design and functionality as last year’s app. The cost will be $ 15.00. You can see a sample static page here.
Big preview image of the book cover below (or after the jump).
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The winners of the 2011 Brand New Awards have been posted on the Winners page of the BNAs’ site. Judging took place this past Friday, March 23, 2012 here in Austin, TX — pictures of the day can be found in this Flickr set. Read on for additional notes, thoughts, and a peek at the big-ticket winners.
598 entries submitted
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561 Professional / 37 Student
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281 Logos
29 Logo and Identity Animations
117 Basic Identity Applications
145 Comprehensive Identity Programs
26 Guideline Documents
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351 U.S. entries
34 UK entries
213 entries rest of the world
86 total winning entries
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77 Professional / 11 Students
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66 selected by Judges / 20 selected as “Salvage” by UnderConsideration
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29 Logos
9 Logo and Identity Animations
17 Basic Identity Applications
28 Comprehensive Identity Programs
3 Guideline Documents
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44 U.S.
6 Canada
5 Australian
4 Brazil
4 UK
23 rest of the world
Due to a last-minute conflict, Paula Scher’s client could not attend. In her place, Brett Wicken’s and Ammunition Group’s client from Autodesk, Creative Director Michiel Schriever, stepped in.
The judges were pretty tough and very consistent among them. There were a lot of zeroes and ones (out of five possible votes) handed out. A few fives here and there and other fours, almost no threes.
The Logo category was weaker than last year. There wasn’t a collective “wow” from this category, best represented by the fact that the judges decided to not award a Best of Category.
In regards to logos, there was also a big discussion if it’s a disservice to judge logos on their own, without at least one application. Something we will consider for next year.
As usual, the Comprehensive Identity Program category was a monster of fun and awesomeness. The winners displayed a tremendous understanding of extending an identity.
For some reason, both this year’s and last year’s judges had a hard time grasping the Logo and Identity Animation category, not being exactly sure as to how to evaluate it. Might need a judge next year more close to this kind of work, as I find it to be one of the most exciting categories.
The student entries were not only few but, for the most part, lacking in oomph. We will seriously reconsider keeping the competition open for students next year.
In the end, the winners represent a fantastic selection of work from around the world and we are thrilled with the results.
Once again, there were very few nominations for the two Special Awards for Design Effectiveness and Client Leadership and since only those entries that win are considered the less than a handful that had a nomination did not stand out enough to be awarded. This might be the last year we attempt these two awards.
Since the cutting floor was pretty full, we found a lot of entries that we — Armin and Bryony of UnderConsideration — felt deserved to be included, just as we did last year. We pulled in double the amount of last year and we showed all of our selections to the judges — funnily enough, they all mostly agreed that those projects deserved to be in while they pushed back on two or three of our selections, which we ultimately left in.
We will be working on producing the annual in the next two or three months. This year we will again publish a book, an iPad app, and this year we will be testing a paywall website (for those who don’t have an iPad or prefer to see things online).
Best of Show (1 of 2) + Judge’s Pick: Andrew Blauvelt
Saint Bartholomew’s Church by OCD | The Original Champions of Design
Comprehensive Identity Program
Best of Show (2 of 2) + Judge’s Pick: Michiel Schriever
New Theatre by Interbrand Sydney
Comprehensive Identity Program
Judge’s Pick: Paula Scher
The Jerusalem Season of Culture (JSOC) by Open
Comprehensive Identity Program
Best of Category + Judge’s Pick: Brett Wickens
Own identity by IS Creative Studio
Basic Identity Application
Best of Category + Judge’s Pick: Ellen Glassman
Advanced Ice Cream Technologies by Landor Associates
Comprehensive Identity Program
Best of Category
Current TV by Wolff Olins
Comprehensive Identity Program
Best of Category
“Traklin” (TV Channel) by Roy Sturdy from “Shenkar” School of Design and Engineering
Student
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Designed Eszter Laki | Country: Budapest
“My friend and I decided to make marmalade from orange, lemon and lime. We peeled the fruits for hours, we boiled them with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. It was so delicious at the end, so it deserved some proper package design.”
The 2011 Brand New Awards are now open and accepting entries. Quick things to know: You can submit everything online this year and save on shipping costs / Your entries are still going to be printed and judged in person, so we are charging the smallest print fee possible / Judges: Paula Scher and her Citibank client, Brett Wickens and his Sears client, and Andrew Blauvelt / Main deadline: March 2, 2012 / Early-bird pricing deadline: February 3, 2012 / Follow @bnawards.
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To end the year on a positive note here are The Best Identities of 2011. As much as I enjoy posting the train wrecks, the Bests are more fun, mostly because my selections tend to generate plenty of disagreement. You can catch the worst here. Enjoy and see you in 2012.
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A global insurance company that isn’t afraid to look serious or even mean, with a super sharp and blacker than black logo. The applications added some levity and a playful animation showed its flexibility.
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Jeff Kriege (in-house)
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Where hundreds of swoosh-based, humanoid-shaped logos have gone horribly wrong, Atlassian succeeds with a very excellent execution in form, counterforms, and typography. In-house designer Jeffe Kriege even posted a behind-the-scenes look at the design of the identity.
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While a lot of commenters moaned that this was the opposite of “seeing clearly” — after all, who wants to think about their vision looking like a smooshed grape — I thought the idea of being able to see even the most delicate detail of the watercolor communicated the right thing. Plus, I just want to eat all those colorful blobs and wash them down with a glass of rainbow.
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The logo played with all the elements of the name: An implied “V”, a Gestalt-ish “Y”, and a speech bubble for voices. While it could have been cliché, the logo was one of the crowd favorites of the year. The applications and supporting icon system made this one of the best rounded identities.
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I’m a sucker for both monoweight script wordmarks and happy, chubby mascots. This revitalization of UK roadside food chain fulfills both of these personal attractions with colorful joy.
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One of the best, and truest, flexible identities of the year. Simple, solid, and malleable. But most importantly, student, faculty, and alumni approved.
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Typography: Where East Meets West
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Although it had a luke-warm reception when we first posted it, due in part to lack of proper materials to show, the Mathaf identity got a second wind after taking Best of Show in the 2010 Brand New Awards and we were able to post this comprehensive follow-up.
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MIT Media Lab, Full of Squares
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A nerd-fueled flexible identity with a web interface that allows people to generate their very own iteration. The logo is kind of ugly, but you can’t stop looking at it.
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Current Lets its Bold Flag Fly
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A logo designed first to live on screen through beautiful, bold typography mapped on a waving flag. Even in static form it’s pretty badass.
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With a Great Tagline Comes Great Responsibility
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Just like its tagline, “Always On. Slightly Off.”, this identity is so on it hurts. Smart, funny, and totally unsexy (in a good way). One of my favorite aspects of the identity is that it uses like five different sans serif typefaces, sort of a big no-no but it works remarkably off here.
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How do you capture the essence and totality of a country? Like this. Exactly like this. Something that no other country could own, rooted in the tradition and visual culture of the place, with a sophisticated modern touch. A remarkably comprehensive identity.
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Lippincott + Starbucks Global Creative
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All right Mr. Schultz, I’m Ready for my Close-up
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From the moment this rolled out I loved it. You can’t really revolutionize a global brand like Starbucks, it would be too hard and risky. This was the perfect evolution to elevate it into an iconic brand, one beyond coffee. Losing the name around the siren allowed the icon to be the star of the brand and it performs like one in all the applications — see here. This may not be the identity with the most visual pow of the year but the sheer effort it takes to move a brand of this size into a more refined and sophisticated aesthetic, especially for a brand that takes up so much of our visual landscape, is well worth applauding.
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Without much further introduction — since now you know what to expect from our end of year round-ups — here are The Worst Identities of 2011. Enjoy! Part II: The Best will come next Monday.
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It’s not that the new one is that bad but the overly literal interpretation of “airline” through a tailfin defeats the simplicity of the previous one. I guess I just expected more (or, well, less) from the Swiss.
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The Edmonton Valley Zoo is Watching You
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As far as zoos go, this one isn’t one of the biggest nor most visited but it did have a magnificent logo previously, depicting their old mascot, Elsie the elephant, through a lowercase “e” for Edmonton. What does the new one have going for it? Animals with eyes bloated and crazy as if they just had a Four Loko and Red Bull cocktail.
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I am a big fan of SomeOne and this identity had the right ambitious undertone of their work, but the result is a confusing 3D logo that tries to pass as interesting with some wild texturing. There is also a custom typeface with some of the most annoying flourishes ever bespoken.
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When I first saw this redesign I had to make sure the new logo was actually the new one as it looks like it could have been crafted in the early 1980s. The typography is heavy and boring. The swooshy icon unappealing. A TV sports network in the twenty-first century should not look like something out of Anchorman. The on-air graphics, unfortunately, don’t save the logo either.
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Petco Unleashes Unhealthy Logo
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I unleashed most of my ire on the tagline, which added the keyword “healthy” in it, to make sure no sad sack dog or cat dare enter their store — it’s as if Target changed its tagline to “Where the HEALTHY people go; the rest of you can go to Walmart”. The typography didn’t do much to ingratiate the redesign with me.
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The best thing I can say about this identity is that it could have been worse. It could have been stars and stripes blowing out of stars and stripes and gradients of white, red, and blue until you were blue in the face. Instead of that we got a ton of unimaginative dots that are meant to “represent the diversity of people and experiences that can be found in the United States”. I bet you didn’t see that rationalization coming!
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Close-up of a drill bit or claws of a polar bear? I would much rather have the latter so that I could scratch my eyes out after seeing that bold, extended version of Verdana in the wordmark.
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The only two satellite radio companies in the US with a commanding 20-million-subscriber base and a groundbreaking reputation come up with a pathetically boring logo. With no competition and such a hardcore following, SiriusXM could have done anything it wanted. I guess it wanted to suck.
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In-house
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Taking the Comedy out of Comedy
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With a previous logo as bad as this was you would think that anything would be an improvement. Think again. Using the typographic equivalent of a laugh track, Gill Sans Ultra, the Comedy Network probably thinks it took the high road with a simple and sophisticated logo. We are laughing at you, not with you.
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On the surface this doesn’t look that bad and it isn’t. The problem was how they got there: JCPenney, a company with $ 17.8 billion in revenue in 2010, had a logo bake-off between some of its employees, several design agencies, and two art schools that collectively submitted over 200 designs for consideration. Infuriating and pathetic. The winning design was by Luke Langhus, a third-year graphic design student at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Power to the dude but, man, JCPenney F U.
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No company shot itself more times in the foot, arm, and head than Netflix, going from media and customer darling to punchline. The apogee of Netflix’s blunders came when they announced that their recent separation of streaming content and mail-in DVDs would create a new company called Qwkister focusing on the DVD by mail business. Not only were the name and logo tragic but Netflix decided to hit undo faster than you could watch a Lawrence of Arabia and put it back in the mail. Netflix: get it together.
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Baseball, with all its tradition and Americana values, is fertile ground for great identity design. Paired with the local flavor of each city, all of the MLB’s teams should have winning identities. But sometimes things go wrong. Very very wrong. Every single element of this identity — from the marlin to the color palette to the secondary typography — is botched in more ways than one. For a city like Miami, with such rich visual culture, it’s a shame they ended up with this. I would have preferred clichéd palm trees and white suits with pink t-shirts underneath than this.
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