Wanneer je jouw merk, logo of andere onderscheidende uiting officieel wilt laten beschermen in Nederland (en daarmee automatisch in de hele Benelux), moet je je inschrijven bij het Benelux-bureau voor de intellectuele eigendom (BBIE). Hoe werkt dat, en waar moet je op letten? Het stappenplan om je bedrijfsnaam of logo te deponeren:

Logitech has decided that it's sick of their old, outdated brand, today launching a new look for the company that will supposedly place "design at the core" of its products, while building on its "hertiage as a technology company".
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Italy's flag-carrier, Alitalia, has received a new brand identity courtesy of Landor. The new logotype has been given a more dynamic makeover, retaining the green, red and white colours of the Italian flag, and a more dominant 'A' has been introduced, described as "a bold statement of the heights the airline is striving to reach and its enviable experience in the field of aviation".

Inspired in part by Formula 1 racing cars, striations have been added to the red triangular interior of the Alitalia 'A', creating a pinstripe effect which is designed to reflect exclusivity, attention to detail and a strong focus on design.

Marketers have always had to juggle two seemingly contradictory goals: making their brands distinctive and making them central in their category. Central brands, such as Coca-Cola in soft drinks and McDonald’s in fast food, are those that are most representative of their type. They’re the first ones to come to mind, and they serve as reference points for comparison. These brands shape category dynamics, including consumer preferences, pricing, and the pace and direction of innovation. Distinctive brands, such as Tesla in cars and Dos Equis in beer, stand out from the crowd and avoid direct competition with widely popular central brands.

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The Apple Watch was officially unveiled yesterday (as was a super-thin 13.1mm new MacBook) and as ever the internet is awash with run-downs and reactions slobbering over the new products. For Wolff Olins design director Jan Eumann though, the imminent arrival of the new timepiece got him thinking about logo design, and in particular how app buttons have rehabilitated the logo. You can add your thoughts using the comment thread below…

For a long time Wolff Olins was about branding, not corporate identity, especially not corporate design. We practiced and preached that your brand is more than a logo, that there are more design elements that can define your visual language. That the logo is almost secondary.

Let me clarify, I’m not talking about strategy, content or experience here. We ALL know how utterly important all that stuff is. I’m just talking from a pure design point of view.

Long story short: The logo was key in the early days of corporate design and then we talked it away. We had every right to. The world was changing and more flexible design systems were needed and still are in many cases. But nowadays if we look at the Googles of the world, the Airbnbs, the Twitters — what do they all have in common? They are digital; they live on your desktop but also on your tablet, your phone, your glasses and your watch.

We reached a turning point in the autumn of 1961, when we launched a new KLM logo that has gone almost unchanged to this day.

Creativity doesn't start when you punch a clock. Here's a better way to charge for design work.

Someone, somewhere, at some time decided that the value of design directly correlates to the time spent solving a client’s problem. Today, most design firms use an hourly rate to determine creative services. Although clients may agree to a retainer, fixed fee, or equity swap, nearly all of the 30 firms I surveyed for this story first estimate their fees based on some hourly formula.

But anyone who works in a creative field knows that creativity isn’t something that starts when you punch a clock. How many times have you had a great idea in the shower? While stuck in traffic? While watching a football game? When a brilliant idea "strikes like lightning" is it less valuable? If a powerful concept evolves over months of intense effort, does that make it more valuable? Is the hourly model, then, really the best way to determine the value of design and branding services?

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In my experience, that gap in understanding can readily be solved by estimating the value for a design program in the client’s own terms, based on values that reflect the client’s particular business or industry. This "value mirror" approach offers a client-centric model that works at any scale. The magic in this pricing model is that it’s built from the client’s point of view, based on his or her own definition of value.

The official Real Madrid club crest, left, and the modified image appearing in the U.A.E., right.

panish soccer heavyweight Real Madrid dropped the Christian crossaffixed at the top of its  official crest after signing a lucrative sponsorship deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. At an unveiling ceremony in the Gulf emirate earlier this week, the club's president, Florentino Perez, revealed a new credit card sponsored by the bank, which doubles as a Real Madrid club membership card. On the card, the club's iconic "Los Blancos" badge is missing the cross atop its royal crown.

Its absence is seen as a gesture to placate Muslim fans in the region, according to Spanish sports daily Marca. Outside the U.A.E., the club crest has not been altered.

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There’s a lot of talk today around engaging with customers, but how many brands make an attempt to really 'feel' like their customers?

The automated employees at this mechanical lab in South San Francisco are the clicking, whirring heart of Counsyl, a startup designed to make lifesaving genetic sequencing as commonplace as cholesterol tests. That means finding more efficient, and more affordable, ways of hunting down the telltale markers in DNA that indicate a patient's risk of passing along certain diseases to a child, or of developing specific cancers herself. But it also means transforming the impenetrable and customer-averse field of medical diagnostics into something it's never been--an inviting online experience. Robots are key to Counsyl's strategy. Just as important, though, and maybe more revolutionary, is its user experience. Innovation, in genetic testing, can be as simple as treating your patients like humans.

That Counsyl's tests are presented as actual ­products--which you can choose to buy (with your doctor's approval) rather than be instructed to undergo, is a radical departure for diagnostics. Even more radical is Counsyl's online cost calculator. Each of the screenings costs about $1,000 (roughly 70% less than what competing companies charge).

Een corporate identity ziet er goed uit op papier, maar wordt in de praktijk meestal op een smartphone of flatscreen geconsumeerd. En op een scherm faalt een corporate identity vaak. De Digital Sanity Checklist geeft je 7 checks voor een goede online corporate identity.

In order to differentiate itself from the competition, the DocCheck AG Annual Report, entitled “Ganz Basic” (Genuinely Basic), goes back to the digital roots of the company. The evolution of the “basis” revolution is showcased in a surprising way by the use of a clearly analogue version on continuous paper. Using ASCII fonts, the group presents its performance characteristics and portrays members of the board and employees as a valuable systems resource. The digital version consists of a contemp

Ideo helps the budget hotel chain rethink everything from beds to mood lighting.

Het Kalashnikovconcern presenteerde begin december een nieuwe merkidentiteit en een nieuwe slogan. Het Kalashnikovconcern presenteerde begin december een nieuwe merkidentiteit en een nieuwe slogan.

De 'deeleconomie': is dat een voor iedereen toegankelijke feel good-economie, of bestaat het vooral uit bedrijven die in hun jacht op winstmaximalisatie misbruik maken van de welwillendheid van naïeve burgers? De documentairemakers van Tegenlicht gingen op onderzoek uit.

"You cannot get away with bullshit anymore," says Landor chief strategy officer Thomas Ordahl. Enter TMI.

TNT positioned as The People Network and cropped circle identity introduced to suggest movement and “perpetual motion”.