• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 23, 2009

AOL Sunday revealed the new brand identity it will begin using Dec. 10th, when it spins off as a free-standing, publicly traded company from Time Warner. Actually, it revealed several of them. The new identity/ies is built around a new, constantly changing logo that replaces its trademark "running man" with an array of characters ranging from a goldfish to stylized graffiti-like images to a hand sign known as an illuminati gesture.

AOL said the intention is to convey a sense of its ever-changing content and connectivity to online experiences.

"We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the AOL brand as we take the company into the next decade," Tim Armstrong, chairman-CEO of AOL stated.

The new identity, which will be rolled out worldwide, was developed by brand consultancy Wolff Olins, which tapped a wide range of artists, including Universal Everything, GHAVA and Dylan Griffin to create the new static and animated artwork featured in the new logos.

"It's the media equivalent of moving out of your parents' house, heading to the nearest tattoo and piercing parlor, and yelling FREEEEEEDOM!," wrote CNet's Caroline McCarthy after seeing the new logo treatments.

Karl Heiselman, CEO of Wolff Olins, said the goal was to "be open and generous, to invite conversation and collaboration, and to feel credible, but also aspirational."

As such, the new AOL image is more evocative of MTV's early transmophing logo, than the fuddy-duddy image its running man logo had come to represent.