Is this the worst logo ever?
You’d think that if you had money to burn you’d be able to commission a logo you can be proud of, wouldn’t you? They don’tcome much richer than Rupert Murdoch but this hideous offering is the new logo for News UK (aka News International rebranded).
Apparently the script is based on Rupert’s handwriting and that of his father – how uncanny that the scripts were similar. I guess the idea was to give the organisation a more ‘cuddly’ family feel, but the logo doesn’t work on a number of levels:
1 A handwriting script is totally unsuitable for an organisation such as News UK.
2 Even if it weren’t, the script is ugly, yet very contrived.
3 The overall appearance is weak.
4 The colours are dreary.
5 It’s OK (in fact, desirable) to use handwriting with a contrasting font, but the colours and weights should balance each other. These do not, with ‘UK’ fading feebly into the background.
Reading between the lines, I suspect that this logo was designed by committee. Often when a design is presented to a large group of people, especially those with large egos, they all want to have their say; if the designer doesn’t stand firm, the outcome can be catastrophic.
The company claim that the new branding is ‘designed to convey a more coherent and logical identity’. What do you think? I’d love to hear your views.
