The new design manages to retain the Olympic rings and definitely gives a ‘nod’ to the original logo. Is it modern without being extreme? I guess. Is it easier to produce than the previous mark? Not really. Then again, when people vote for a logo online they don’t typically take those considerations into account. All said, the logo update turned out OK. The letterforms seem to be drawn and kerned a little better. The top serifs have been applied more consistently from letter to letter than the previous ones. The wordmark does seem a little leaner and more ‘aerodynamic.’ The introduction of green is an interesting choice. The rest (the letterform shading, the shadows in the rings, the blue shift and the tracking of the word ‘AIR’) is mostly competent, if forgettable. As it turns out, Olympic Air now uses the negative version of the logo with flat-shaded rings on their web site. This seems to erase much of what differentiated the new mark from the old one—something that could have been mitigated if the designer played a larger role in the process. Will people look at the new home page and realize the brand has changed? Only time will tell. [via Brand New]

Remember that channel you would watch when you were home sick from school or on summer or spring break and just watch music videos or hilarious beavis & butt-head shorts or the state? Who remembers the state? Oh come on! Anyway, MTV is refreshing their brand image. Oh you didn’t hear about this? Or notice a different? Of course not, you don’t watch MTV anymore and frankly their logo has remained the same so how would you even notice a difference!?

Yes, their brand refresh only means that they won’t be having any crazy textures or colors or even animations play over the logo. They’ll just keep it a simple black M on a white ground. That’s it. Oh and it’ll say Music Television across the bottom of the logo.

Now you’d think that a television station that was refreshing their brand image would want to start with having at least their logo speak honestly about their product. But no, they will continue to use Music Television even though they don’t show a single video throughout the long 24 hour period of television programming they put on. Really it should say something along the lines of their commercial breaks last forever, or something about terrible reality shows.

I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, but really the last time I was ever interested in something MTV had on, or even knew of anything that happened on MTV, was when Kanye West stole the show at this year’s VMAs. And really, I can’t imagine MTV doing anything with their new brand refreshing that will draw back it’s audience or shoot ratings through the roof… oh wait, yeah I can. PLAY MUSIC VIDEOS!