Fort Wayne Community Schools spent $15,000 on its new logo, but did it get $15,000 worth of creative energy? As LocalWebSlinger and Eric Fetcho of Fetchy's Bantering both point out in comments on the earlier post about it, the new FWCS logo looks an awful lot like the logo of the Asher Agency, which the school system paid to design it. If the design is supposed so say something unique about FWCS, I'd say, well, not so much. You decide.
UPDATE: In the comments thread, the issue of the cost of replacing the old logo was raised. A representative of FWCS just called me to say that the school system is NOT going to be spending a lot of money dumping everything (like stationery) with the old logo. What they have will be used up first. And individual schools don't have letterhead stationery printed anyway -- computer-generated templates are used.
Comments
As a former art student when I was in high school (class of 1970), I said to my wife that the BEST idea would have come from the ART STUDENTS THEMSELVES. In our day we would have "recruited" to come up with a new logo.
And she, being a teacher agreed 100%.
Have a "logo-off" from each high school, and then a group of admins/teachers/FWCS board members (et al) to make the final vote, and VOILE....a NICE , new logo for a damn GOOD price, that the STUDENTS had direct input in choosing.
THAT'S how you do MORE...with LESS.
But that was THEN...and this IS NOW.
B.G.
Bob is right on the mark. One student or more could have come up with some alternatives to be shown along with whatever else was amongst the final choices when the final decision was made. It would have been a source of pride for some student.
Actually, I like the new FWCS logo ok... but not as much now that I see where it originated.
There's no doubt art students are hungrier. Here is a nice merger of logos that I didn't have to pay jack for... if merger was the way to go.
http://fairplayvolleyball.blogspot.com/2007/01/spiece-fair-play-logo.html
I'm not being critical, but why did the logo cost $15,000? It would seem that there should have been some sort of discount since most of the heavy lifting had already been done with the original logo was created.
If one looks around online, there are people willing to create logos for a lot less. There's even a website where artists compete to create logos based on submitted specs for various small businesses for a lot less than what the school corporation paid.
The new logo neither impresses me or repulses me. It's just kind of "there". The cost of $15,000 doesn't shock me, but it obviously could have been accomplished for less. The real kicker is when you tally up the total of replacing every single "thing" out there owned and used by the district with the old logo on it. That's going to be a six digit debacle at the very least.
Tim: Bingo. A company my brother worked for (he may or may not want to weigh in here) was getting its butt kicked by a competitor and came up with the brillliant solution of changing its brand/logo/whatever. I don't remember the exact figure in millions it cost to change the signs, but it was staggering. And that company is STILL getting its butt kicked.
Its just like FWCS to waste money and make a stupid decision against it!