Return of the Logo Issue
Over at the Peoria Pundit, we went back and forth with a number of people over the top eight designs from Converse Marketing. Okay, I went back and forth with everyone and their mother about it. Early on I mentioned I had some experience with graphic design and since I used to do web development, I needed to know the basics. This was warped into a strawman ad hominem by a butthurt design snob, in which I was posing as an expert and subsequently hate all designers and their industry. Gotta love internet tough guys.
I guess I should note that I’ve made friends with a number of graphic designers–some of whom I’ve relied on heavily for feedback or inspiration–or that I’m a regular buyer from deviantart.com, which hosts thousands and thousands of amateur artists. Clearly, these are people I hate with a fiery passion. Fuck those bastards. *cough*
Pretentious Design Snob did make the human case for the designers themselves, which is certainly something I can sympathize with. Another commenter mentioned something about the meaning it should have to Peorians. Okay. So what I’ll do, instead of focusing on my initial negative reactions, is offer some positive feedback on the designs I think are pointing in the right direction:
Still gimmicky and plain.
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Still looks like 90’s printer software clip art.
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This one is better in that it actually has visual elements that mean something to Peorians: the skyline and the river. I don’t think we ought to have a logo without without at least a skyline. The previous logo fails because of its style, even though it has an extra recognizable feature (the Murray Baker bridge).
The colors do work well together, but I don’t particularly care for them. The font change/bold halfway through the text is still the equivalent of a badger choking on an abortion.
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When it comes to this one, the only thing I see is:
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Simple, well done, the exclamation point still sucks. I could live with the overlapping lines if they just got rid of the obnoxious punctuation.
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The first thing that comes to mind is still a Boy Scout merit badge but of all the designs this one probably carries the most meaningful value. What this represents is the view of Peoria that seems to appear out of nowhere as you’re driving on westbound I-74 in East Peoria. Virtually everyone in Peoria is familiar with this, and even people from outside the area I’ve talked to have made positive remarks about the view. One person even referred to it as “the hidden city.” Mysterious.
Still not wild about the colors.
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The font blows. If we go with this one we might as well change our slogan to “Peoria: We Have Tumbleweeds!”
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No connection to the city whatsoever. The font isn’t bad and I wouldn’t want to live with these colors for the next umpteen years.
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Alright, alright, that was still pretty negative. Still, this is something we’re going to be stuck with until the next time the city council gets a wild hair up its ass and wants to change things nobody asked to be changed.
One thing I’m wondering is whether anyone has brought up the idea to create a city seal instead of a logo. This has three distinct benefits: 1) Seals have a quality that makes them automatically look official. Big cities have seals, why can’t we? 2) A seal looks appropriate on a business card, a police car, city stationary, plastered on the wall somewhere, etc. 3) Unlike logos, nobody gives a shit what seals look like.
October 14th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Sorry EBB and I missed the ruckus, we hate all of them too. Also, I was speaking with several community activists, who were also unimpressed. You brought up a point that I sort of brought up in that conversation: Did you know the Peoria Police just changed their logo/seal? (don’t know what they call it) All of the uniform patches and the sides of the cars used to have a cool design of the city skyline, and now they have gone to an updated one. Think about that for a moment. We already had a cool design that would cost near nothing to implement. If you are looking for the design, I believe the police cars still have the decal.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Tonight at the city council meeting I heard Ryan Spain talking about how this wasn’t merely a logo, but an all-out effort to re-brand the city, something which caught me by surprise. Apparently it caught Sandberg by surprise too, because he immediately said what I’d been thinking: this was supposed to be about a logo, not a brand or a slogan.
I’ll keep an eye out for the police logo. If you have any images you can show me, post a link here and I’ll add them to the list of could’ve-beens.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:50 am
I like “The Hidden City” tagline…maybe that can be part of the brand. I also like the view coming in from East Peoria — it’s very impressive and moving but needs to be utilized in a different format that the current circle it’s in
The City does have a seal; though I can’t find it anywhere on their website. It’s been around for decades ……..
Overall the color palatte is full of “sameness” for many of the designs….a little too bland to make a statement. I’m in favor of incorporating the existing colors into the new design. If I had a little skill (and I don’t) I’d try to merge the existing logo (colors and general shape) with the logo of the view from Peoria - providing a scene that we all recognize with a nod to the past (colors that have been used for decades and the indian head shape not to show an indian head but sort of a style reminiscent of it.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Yeah, I looked like hell for that seal too and came up with nothing. That’s the thing about seals: nobody seems too concerned about them.
One thing that struck me about the rejected designs is how many could reasonably be suited for other applications. The orange one with the sun and the skyline could be used on a light pole banner like the ones in the Renaissance Park area. Another looks right at home for some sort of art fair. Maybe a few of these can be retained for other applications.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:05 am
Any one of these logo’s would run you a maximum of $20 at elance.com. There is simply no justification what-so-ever for the amount of money the city is paying for this crap.
Reno, get out your god damn microphone, walk on over to Converse Marketing and get some god damn answers.