Two very familiar identities in airline travel were smooshed together this week. The new "bidentity" (or is it "flydentity"?) will keep the Continental name and the logo and colors of the United brand.

It was an amalgamation likely concocted in the interest of time, and it seems impossible that we wouldn't see a totally new logo within the year. But it's a shame that what is now the largest carrier couldn't have done something more inspiring than cherry–picking components and Scotch–taping them together.

SOURCE: http://www.logolounge.com/todaysnews/default.asp?Archive=True&ArticleID=793

www.tashaleedesign.com • tasha@tashaleedesign.com

The merger of United Airlines with Continental has many ramifications. One of them is that the company will kill the "U’ logo designed by the legendary Saul Bass. It is expected that, though the name will be United, the graphics will be based on Continental’s typography and symbol.

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Aligning The Pyramids

The popularity of specialty tea is on the rise, expected to reach $15 billion in sales by 2012, due to its purported health benefits of tea drinking. To align Lipton with upscale, gourmet tea products, Moxie™, re-energized the packaging for the line of premium pyramid tea bags. Vibrant colors, photography rather than illustrations, and flavor imagery help fulfill the tea’s promise, says Moxie™ head Tammy Vaserstein. The design team retained Lipton’s familiar red brandmark and signature color of premium yellow, which was lightened to a champagne-like hue, alluding to a heightened sense of elegance and quality. Lucia Varela is brand manager at Lipton.

SOURCE: GD USA

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Easy Being Green

Staples, identified with the Easy Button, is in the midst of a global design contest to discover eco-friendly office products. The inaugural Staples Global EcoEasy Challenge, a partnership with the RIT, is down to seven finalists representing student teams from five universities. Three of the finalist teams are from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (power-conserving desk chairs and shredders), from Brazil's Engineering of Piracicaba (desk and drawer organization tools made out of a local, sustainable material) while teams from Europe (better binders and pens) and Cal Berkeley (what else but a redesigned stapler.) We'll have the winner in the next GDUSA Green Enews. Staples Global EcoEasy Challenge

SOURCE: GD USA

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Politicians have occasionally attempted to campaign against baggy pants. Even President Obama, when a candidate, urged young black men to pull up their pants. Now New York state senator Eric Adams is putting up billboards in Brooklyn NY in an attempt to “Stop the sag” as well as a video in which he slots baggy pants into a chronology of negative racial stereotyping. Adams, a black retired police captain first elected in 2006, tapped his campaign coffers for $2,000 to put up the billboards and to make a YouTube video.

SOURCE: GD USA

www.tashaleedesign.com • tasha@tashaleedesign.com