Check out this new ad from MSNBC, featured in Newsweek. I think the ad communicates very well. And yet I also wonder if MSNBC is going in the wrong direction by positioning itself as "all kinds of news for all kinds of people." As if it wasn't bad enough that they've line-extended not just one brand (MSN) but two (NBC)! Think of Fox News. What one word do you think of? Conservative. What about CNN? I think of Cable News. What about MSNBC? I'm not sure what others would think. I think Olberman or Peacock or NBC. The bottom line is I think MSNBC would be better off picking one color of the spectrum rather than all of them. Although the ad is pretty. ;D On a side note, I'm a sucker for colorful information design and branding:

In the dark of the night sometime in January while no one was watching, No Child Left Behind got a makeover. Their new logo shows three slash-like red stripes and horrible typography. Makes me wonder what poor unpaid intern they had work on this piece of art.

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So I was gathering news for my weekly news trivia game and saw MSNBC's new logo, and apparently their new website "look." Here are their old logos: The one with "MSNBC" all in a line (the last one) has always made me cringe. Look how wide that N is! And the thickness of the S totally doesnt match visually with the other letters. The M is much too narrow. I think they just took the letters from the first logo and just put them in a line without any care for trying a new (and better designed) typeface. BUT... so here's the new logo: Which "usual trend" did they follow in this redesign? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. Give up? The letters are all lowercase. A lot of companies fall for this one. It looks so much better, to be sure, but it comes off as "weak." This might be ok for a children's-themed company perhaps, but the third-largest cable news channel in the U.S.? Some other companies that have gone lowercase: I'm sure there are a zillion more than I can't think of off the top of my head.