Pointless logos.

[Bored Of Education]

There are logos - designed by people who have been, one assumes, paid a fair whack or, at least, taken a fair amount of time to do it - for organisations that need nothing more than their name in a clear font. For instance,







"Now which Probation Service am I going to need? I can't decide. Oh, I will have that one with the nice sort of, erm, steps logo?"

[Fussbudget]

Wtf is that last one. Are the six sides of the hexagon meant to represent the six counties, and the two colours the department's rich history of discrimination against half the population? And lots of hidden stars of David Fedex-style for some reason, very crap fonts also.

[Nefertiti2]

they will also be the hexagons of the giants causeway

[Fussbudget]

Ah thank you, that makes a bit more sense. Still a terrible-looking logo, mind.

[Amor de Cosmos]

As someone who spent a couple of decades designing corporate ID programs. I'd say that better than half of my clients had no real understanding of what they were supposed to accomplish. This was especially true of government funded projects at any level.

[Janik]

Wtf is that last one. Are the six sides of the hexagon meant to represent the six counties, and the two colours the department's rich history of discrimination against half the population? And lots of hidden stars of David Fedex-style for some reason, very crap fonts also.

Well, you see, hexagons tessellate perfectly. But these particular hexagons have been laid out in a deliberately inefficient way, that creates wasted space. Entirely intentionally, as the wasted space evokes the wasted time that the Department of Justice imposes on people by jailing them.

[Kevin S]

Another quango:

[3 Colours Red]

I can see what they were trying to do with a "road" zig-zagging its way to look like a map of England, except it's like someone's tried to make a paper spring and bollocksed it up.

[Bored Of Education]

With these logos, it is not so much that I don't understand them (although it is good to have an explanation of the Giants' Causeway one) or that they make no sense - indeed, the Highways one isn't bad as a logo. It's more that the organisations don't need an extra logo to attract the eye or sell the organisation to you - they are public organisations or quangos who don't really need to stick out from the competition. Yet, they have employed someone to design a completely pointless logo. Most government departments have some version of the UK coat of arms or the crown (probably created by a designer) which should suffice for any government department or organisation.

[Fussbudget]

That's a very recent thing, until 2012 each government department and agency had their own logo including some truly amateur hour shit. The new standardised logos are meant to make all parts of government easily recognisable as such, so that if for example you have to deal with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate or the Independent Family Returns Panel or whoever, you know that they're a legitimate government body and not some kind of scam.

Not sure why the refuseniks above have been allowed to keep their MS Paint jobbies, I guess either some technicality about their place within government or they have the directors that shout the loudest.

[WOM]

At a previous agency, we had logo guy who usually did quite wonderful work. Then he redid the Province of Ontario trillium logo. The trillium, just so it's on the record, is a flower with three petals and is the official provincial flower. Anyway, old logo at the bottom. New logo on top. What do you see? Have a look and then click spoiler.



[spoiler] Three men in a hot tub. Can't unsee it now, can you? [/spoiler]

[3 Colours Red]

At least he put in a modicum of effort... look what my local council got lumbered with:



Five minutes in MS Paint would have been a step up, that's two seconds in WordArt right there.

[Gerontophile]

I like the font.

[Jah Womble]

Perhaps Ontario should've stuck with the 'three men' (sic) logo, but straighten it up viz the amended version. On the other hand, it'd probably look a little like a crap seventies UK TV ident - as do rather too many of these.

Highways England is okay.

[Guy Profumo]

I refer you to my previous comments about "The University Of Sheffield."

[Guy Profumo]

And this nightmare - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depart...s_and_Families

[Ginger Yellow]

very crap fonts also.

Quite impressive to have not just two fonts, but serif and sans serif just within the name of the entity

[Disco Child Ballads]

All Northern Ireland Government departments have that hexagonal logo. They just change the colour slightly for each one. Here, for instance is the one for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

[Sits]

Time for some Aussie input here.

[Gerontophile]

That's a cartoon dog.

[Bored Of Education]

The council remind me that I could never work out what the point of Wirral Council sponsoring Tranmere Rovers was. It's not like anyone on the Wirral could use another council nor that any other people outside the Wirral could use them.

[ursus arctos]

It's just a way to provide state funding to a resource of community importance.

[Bored Of Education]

Well, yes but I was always surprised that the Wirral council tax payers went for it. Half of them are probably Liverpool or Everton supporters for a start.

[ursus arctos]

I doubt that it was put to a referendum, any more than subsidies to the local orchestra or house museum.

[Bored Of Education]

The local papers, I am sure, would have been full of it if they were bothered. I don't scan all the local papers on the Wirral obviously but they were the main sponsors for over 20 years. I could never work out why South Wales Echo sponsored Cardiff City's away kit for years but then noticed that a lot of local papers sponsor their local teams home and away kit.