It’s an image best described as a tree smashed between two letters. Like a two dimensional rendition of a weed growing through a crack in the concrete. And it’s the culmination of a $1.5 million project to create a logo so enticing it would lure residents, businesses and tourists to flock to North Carolina.
The state’s new logo was rolled out last year and it has gotten attention. Just not the kind the designers were hoping for.
This design was launched with the now ubiquitous promotional video complete with sappy music and the dulcet tones of a narrator asking silly questions like "How far can you see from a mountain top?"
I don’t know Mr. Narrator, is it cloudy?
Anyway, the narrator does eventually get to the point and the catchphrase, "North Carolina...Nothing compares." Nothing compares. Now I swear I’ve heard that somewhere before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2K4jHs92A
That similarity caught the attention of Armin Vit as well. He’s a self-described child of the 80’s and 90’s who is a graphic designer way off in Austin Texas. Vit runs a blog called Brand New and it’s kind of a big deal in the world of logos. Vit says his blog gets "like a million and a quarter page views a month."
Vit and Brand New recently put out their best and worst new logos of 2015. And North Carolina’s new logo took first at being the worst. But that ranking may be a bit of a low ball. "I don’t want to make it sound like it is the worst logo ever," Vit says in conciliatory kind of way "but it ranks up there."
So what's wrong with it? Take the colors of the N and C, the way they go from a muddy greenish on the far left of the N to a murky blue on the far side of the C. There's the catch phase "Nothing Compares" which Vit says could be used, well, anywhere. And there's the different color blues, the different fonts, basically everything is a mess. "It just doesn’t make you go oh wow that’s pretty or oh wow I really want to go to North Carolina on my next vacation. You recoil a little bit from the colors and how the letters are shaped. It’s just not a very good first impression."
His advice to North Carolina for next time, hire a better designer.
I’d suggest getting Sinead O’Connor to wear the logo the next time she’s on tour.
