Originally established in 1830 as Les Postes, the postal service of Belgium has grown to be its second largest employer, and since 1992 it has been known as simply De Poste-La Poste (“The Post” in Dutch and French). In 2006, Post Danmark and CVC Capital Partners acquired a minority ownership (at 49.9%) from the state, and beginning in January 2011, the post service will become a private company and be released from control by the state. Last month a new name, the all lowercase bpost, and identity, designed by Interbrand, were introduced.

“The new name conveys our two basic characteristics,” explains Johnny Thijs. “We are and will remain a postal company, and we have and will maintain strong roots in our home market. We now also have one single name, which will differentiate us internationally.”
— Press Release

“The new brand expression for bpost perfectly combines the provenance and high recognition of a heritage brand, with added emotion and dynamism way above that which is currently represented in the logistics sector,” says Andy Payne, Global Creative Director of Interbrand. “Currently the sector’s national brands are full of expressions of trust and heritage—horns, crests and national colors. The international players work on expressions of speed, coverage and efficiency. The next step for the sector is to move beyond motion to emotion—focusing on relationship building and getting closer to understanding businesses and their needs by leveraging the latest technology available.”
— Interbrand Press Release

I understand why logos go for lowercase appeal, but an organization like a post service adopting its official name in lowercase seems awfully useless and unprofessional, even something more trendy like bPost would help it stand out in written communications. The new logo is also rather odd, now an abstraction of the previous abstraction of a horn — an abstraction that is well known and often used. As a tilted, half-target the new logo is devoid of much meaning although the one positive thing I can say about it is that, if you squint, it still looks like the old logo, so it does retain some of the visual equity. The bpost typography is a tad dull. In application, like the livery (and here is a video where you can see a pretty bike), the blown-up logo starts to look interesting and create a recognizable look.