In case you missed it

Uber launches new logo; head of design quits next day

Amid great fanfare, Uber launched a new logo design this year, largely drawn up by Uber CEO Travis Kalanick himself. The next day, head of design, Andrew Crow, resigned. Part of the reason may have been the immediate ridicule of the logo: “a wrong turn” being among the best turns of phrase; “an asshole” the most memorable.

The Met’s new identity gets off easy

By having the audacity to merge serifs (flared ones, at that), Wolff Olins initially took a lot of heat with their new identity for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The agency’s creative directors silently thanked the designers of the new Uber logo for drawing attention away from them by creating an even bigger stir.

Instagram launches new logo after Uber furor calms down; people hate it, too

Not to be outdone, Instagram replaced its iconic Polaroid-style logo with a flattened, more colourful graphic. People freaked out. Memes ensued. Side benefit: millions of bloggers learned to spell “skeuomorphic” properly.

Google bans ads from payday lenders

Joining other banned categories of ads, such as counterfeit goods, weapons, explosives, tobacco products and hate speech, payday loan companies as of July 13 will no longer be allowed to advertise via Google. Now, if they could only go after those “banish belly fat forever” ads.

Google takes top spot in Canada’s reputable brands

In spite of public outcry over Google’s “censorship” of payday loan ads and lack of censorship of everything else online commenters would like to ban, the company has once again topped Leger and National Public Relation’s annual rankings of Canada’s most reputable brands.

“The Most Interesting Man in the World” retires

Dos Equis’s beer spokesman, “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” played since 2006 by Jonathan Goldsmith, rode off into the sunset this year. Well, rode off to Mars in a rocket ship, actually, because he really is the most interesting man in the world. Will his replacement, French actor Augustin Legrand, be as interesting? The jury’s still out.

Shopping mall gets a lump of coal for changing “Fashion Santa”

Apparently, you can change the most interesting man in the world with little-to-no outcry, but don’t mess with Santa. Yorkdale Shopping Centre, a mall in Toronto’s northern reaches, dropped their original “Fashion Santa,” Paul Mason, in favour of a new model this year, Adam Martin. The fashion Twitterverse in the city was suitably outraged, with calls for a mall boycott (which just might make it possible to get out of the parking lot in less than 45 minutes).