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When A New Logo Goes Bad
Featured Author:
Mike Lenhart
After spending almost 15 years in the corporate, sales and marketing area of the hospitality industry, Mike Lenhart decided to pursue his passion for visual creativity and make a jump to graphic design and visual communications. Founder and Principal of ML Designs, a freelance-based and outsourced graphic design company and also Founder and Director of Creative Core, a graphic design collaborative, Mike can now use his business and marketing acumen in solving design problems for his clients. He also likes to write about the interesting, unusual, and sometimes irritating happenings in the graphic design world. Creative Core Design
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Mike Lenhart
I recently came across an online review/rant about a new logo design for the New York City taxi fleet. We all love that sea of yellow that comes rolling downtown in NYC, right? (especially when it’s raining). Well, come to find out that what was to be an idea of upgrading the look of the cars and giving a new brand to a portion of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, turned out to be a typographer’s nightmare.
The uproar is over the mixed typefaces, mainly. Not only are the fonts wrong, but the spacing is also pretty bad. What went wrong and, more importantly, how could the Big Apple do this?
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According to Core77, the firm of Wolff Olins got the job to do this, beating out Smart Design. (However, the TLC site gives credit to Smart Design – what gives?)
If Wolff Olins sounds familiar, these are the same folks who designed another rather controversial logo – the one for the 2012 London Olympics. You’ve seen that one, right? Here it is again:
Core77 also had an iteration of another logo that could’ve been used for the NYC taxis and it’s quite good.
Who did it, though? I’m not sure. But, it is clever, classic, and I could see it on tshirts, proudly worn by cabbies and normal joes and janes alike. Oh, what missed opportunities arise when a brand or logo change is done by committee. Sheez!
johnjoe
7 months ago
2 comments
hmmm... perhaps some research is in order before you write an article. Smart Design gets credit for the logo because it's their logo. They just incorporated the Wolff Olins NYC logo into their (T) AXI. This time it's not Wolff Olins fault.
The real story can be found here: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/i_wolff_olins.php and here http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/reviews-trickle-in-for-new-taxi-logo/#more-1127
jbassignani
7 months ago
2 comments
artists should not let business people ruin good art. period. I'd like to see the original version of the logo, I bet it was much, much better.
ThickGrrl
10 months ago
88 comments
the statue of liberty logo is better but can someone plz tell me whats so bad about the other one? thnaks
jhaber31
10 months ago
730 comments
You know, it's just occurred to me that maybe we didn't even need much of a logo. I think of that for businesses that want to build product identification in various media, but it's not like there's a print ad campaign to stop walking and take a cab, or like taxi corporate sponsorship of the Met's home opener. Before this, I just thought, oh, the taxis are obviously the yellow guys. "Yellow cabs" (for a different auto body design) was even a phrase in the local language. Maybe all they needed was to continue the type chosen for the statement of fare rates on the side and use it to type "New York Taxi" on the line immediately above. Oh, I agree with others that the Olympic logo is up there with worst designs ever.
kc1
11 months ago
4 comments
they should have used the lady liberty logo i totally agree their choice was really bad
rachelbackus
about 1 year ago
50 comments
Oh wow. That is so bad... and the one for the London olympics is much, much worse. I love the logo with the statue of liberty. Perfect.
lisaruffmanweiss
about 1 year ago
32 comments
I love the "Liberty/Taxi" logo. It just goes to show you that the good guy usually loses...
Sogomo
about 1 year ago
14 comments
wow, I must agree (along with my 10 year old who by the way has an amazing eye for good art) that the second logo is much more on target..... also she adds "what's up with the big old man hole cover" .... well she is just 10. Later
jillhutchison
about 1 year ago
30 comments
i like the statue of liberty one much better- very funny. i wonder if she ever hailed cash cab! (fyi- as much as the statue is a symbol of NYC- it is in NJ - everybody always forgets that)
Chubbalink
about 1 year ago
250 comments
Not to waste a lot of time, it is really bad. But we are in a cultural vaccum here in this country. Taxis are the scurge of the road.
starkjm
about 1 year ago
22 comments
Oh my, its just wrong! There has to be a somebody out there just shaking their heads, as they helplessly watched this project evolve. Brings back the memory of the "killer minnow" logo I botched in the early eighties. Whats a girl in the midwest know about Orca whales? A story for another day.
shade7
about 1 year ago
38 comments
Obviously the new logo is not good. I dont know whats the objectives, the "T" looks separated to AXI.
thisistony
about 1 year ago
2 comments
That new logo is awful. Nothing about it flows. It's like bloc,bloc,bloc. The logo with the Statue of Liberty as the A is immediately identifiable as NYC, and clever to boot.
marissa
about 1 year ago
2 comments
I think that it is odd how this logo has actually been produced onto NYC taxis. In a city so artistically talented, how did this happen? Who put in the "OK" for this logo to be used? My immediate thought when viewing the lettering was "oh my gosh...I can barely visually see the blob of letters!" It is a disgrace to see this. I am a student in graphic design, going to NYC soon, and I must say that the new logo better be gone when I get there!
etnuvo
about 1 year ago
44 comments
i'd rather see the A as the falling twin towers...