With much fanfare, the new Department of Energy and Climate Change was wheeled out at the last reshuffle, entrusted to golden-boy Miliband (that's Ed, not banana-boy). For months it had no website of its own, but was a logo-free squatter on a few pages of the old BERR site. Obviously some high-class design work was being commissioned: what would it look like ? A few weeks ago it was unveiled, and none too impressive, either, as Mr C remarked at the time: here it is.
So - in the spirit of the times, may we hope that they didn't spend too much on that ? Not a bit of it: as Daily Referendum spotted, in a Parliamentary answer on 29 Feb the DECC 'fessed up to spending £ 39 K on logo design. Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much his Department has spent to date on its (a) websites, (b) logos and (c) stationery. Mr. Mike O'Brien: Since its formation on 3 October 2008, DECC has spent £19,226 on stationery and £38,931 on logo design and associated costs ...
But they didn't get the whole story. There'd been an earlier question, answered thus (12 Jan):
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change ... how much has been spent on the logo ? Mr. Mike O'Brien: To date, the cost have [sic] been £18,000 on logo design ...
Why the increase in between times ? Here's what happened. The first DECC design was this:
Then someone noticed that the logo of another public body - the DEC - had not only a rather similar acronym, but a rather similar logo !
Disaster indeed. Red squares and red faces all round, and back to the drawing board - to double the cost ! And these people want to spend a trillion of our finest £££ ... we should all set up as logo designers. ND
8 comments:
To be fair, the money was either going on logo design or IMF bailouts - not sure which one I hate more.
Why the fuck does a government department need a logo anyway? It's not as if they need to generate "brand awareness" 'coz they aren't in competition with anyone...
I have a good (and even slightly relevant) story which is not for internet consumption. Remind me at the next beers!
a monochrome rainbow is a brilliant metaphor for this department.
"Would you trust these people ...?
You have to ask?
@ AC1, it's not a monochrome rainbow, it symbolises them pissing our money away.
Beat the whites with the red wedge, be a suprematist (nice word for New Labour even if they misunderstand). Enter the skull through the eye not the ear.
Oh, all right. But they really do think they are our intellectual superiors, with das zielbewußte Schaffenthese, these political brand producers.
They think this stuff justifies their pay.
Mr C has a further interpretation, here (and he got in first, let me acknowledge)
Blue Eyes - always up for that, name the time !
Mark - should be a parabola, then !
I have four graphic designers at work, and to produce a logo and style for a new department I'd be surprised if it took any of them more than a couple of days.
And if the senior designer came back with that I'd say "well it's all right Rich, but it's not up to your usual standards mate.
Add on variations for letter heads etc, and I'd still be appalled if the bill came to more than a couple of days work.
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