December 10, 2012
The worst piece of design I've ever seen...
For your viewing pleasure, the old and new University of California logos...
On the plus side, two of my main blogging-points are perfectly encapsulated in this. One is nihilism; the way meaning and belief have drained away from many people's lives. The new logo probably deserves a prize for having the absolute lowest amount of meaning a logo can have—a plain blue rectangle would have more profundity than this.. In fact it may possess negative meaning. That is, if you have still in your mind or soul any high and noble purpose, anything greater then yourself, staring at this graphic will tend to destroy that. If Fiat Lux—Let There Be Light—still has meaning for you, the new logo can cure you of this mental aberration. It can help make you a well-adjusted citizen of the Obama Welfare State.
The other theme is the Information Age. Specifically, that those institutions which have failed to make the transition to the new age we are in are, all of them, delusional. Crazy, in fact. What we call a university is actually an Industrial Age invention. The UC System used to be at the cutting edge of new things. Now it has become profoundly dysfunctional. It needs to be destroyed, to free up human and financial resources for the university-to-come.
UPDATE: My son says they should title it: "Fading into nothingness..."
A news story on this...
University of California introduces a modern logo - San Jose Mercury News:
...After 144 years with the same old Victorian seal, the University of California has decided to go mod.Posted by John Weidner at December 10, 2012 2:17 PM
The university's original logo -- with its open book, 1868 date stamp and "Let there be light" script -- will still be in circulation, appearing on president's letters and official university documents. But marketing materials and websites will feature a radically simple and more contemporary symbol: a little "C" nesting inside a shield-shaped "U."
"They wanted something that would reflect the innovation, the character of California -- just more modern, user-friendly," said Dianne Klein of UC's Office of the President. "That's not to take away from the gravitas of the original seal."...
Ah, to be a graphics designer these days, to spend not much time or energy designing shlocky logos, and to get paid big bucks for doing so!
It's almost enough to make me want to move from the PDRM to Arkansas. (I have an old friend who was raised here in Maryland and who is urging me to visit him out there in Arkansas. He wouldn't come back to Maryland for a million bucks, he says.)
Posted by: Hale Adams at December 10, 2012 5:24 PMThe old seal implies that the purpose of UC is to instruct students and advance learning. The new seal implies nothing, other than 'fun in the sun'. It is a marketing tool.
Posted by: Terry at December 11, 2012 8:18 AMI would say that they have succeeded in reflecting the character of contemporary California.
Posted by: David Hoffman at December 12, 2012 9:58 AMYou know that irritating spinning circle "busy" cursor thingy that you get on Windows Vista or Windows 7 when a web page is taking ages to load?
And you know how when the system decides it isn't EVER going to load this web page, and in fact it's about to crash the computer, that spinning circle "busy" cursor thingy freezes?
That.
Posted by: Natalie Solent at December 14, 2012 9:17 AMGood to hear from you!
Maybe using nano-technology the logos could be animated! Right there on the letterhead of the fundraising mail, going round and round. "Donate today, don't let this little logo die!"
Posted by: John Weidner at December 15, 2012 7:46 AMOld logo sez: 'This is an institution of higher learning'
New logo sez: 'This is a juice bar on the beach. Tables for paying customers only'
Posted by: Terry at December 15, 2012 10:30 AM
