Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Patience?

The State News has an editorial up today urging patience. An excerpt:

Before students storm the athletics offices with pitchforks, they should remember there are major elements from this project that have yet to be revealed.

With that being said, if the total package still doesn’t do justice to the Spartan identity when it’s unveiled in all its glory in April, Spartans should feel free to raise holy hell.

I like the "holy hell" part, but the rest is wrong. Here's the original statement from AD Mark Hollis:

The Spartan logo, posted on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site, is a single element of a comprehensive brand and identity project that will be unveiled in April by Michigan State athletics. As in all branding, the power of a single symbol cannot be appreciated or measured outside the context of the total presentation.

My company spent a lot of time last year working on brand and identity. We had a meeting explaining the proper use of corporate logos, appropriate Powerpoint backgrounds, and all sorts of other stuff. Many unique logos were eliminated so that the main corporate logo is the only one used. We were told everything was to be consistent so as not to damage the brand.

So what does this have to do with MSU? You've seen the new logo. If the goal is to make MSU's brand consistent with a "comprehensive brand project" the the new logo and the old logo can't coexist. Using both would undermine the consistency that's supposed to be the whole point. It's much more likely that the block S would also be eliminated and MSU's visual identity would be pared down to the new logo and a new "Michigan State" font. Sparty might even be in jeopardy. Context isn't necessary, there's no acceptable outcome based on what we already know.

1 comment:

Ump said...

In the theme of the Jim Rome show, this would be referred to as "Spartan on Spartan crime."