We đ NY
The problem with New York Cityâs latest campaign, a modernising of the iconic Milton Glaser âI â¤ď¸ NYâ isnât *really* the work but the lack of lessons learned from recent high-profile rebrands.
Are we really here again? Really? Are we really all dunking on a new logo across social media? Has anyone said that their 8-year-old could have done better? Thatâs always funny. Honestly, donât make me tap the signâŚ
I wrote this a while back about the British Rail update and the clickbait articles surrounding it and whilst, yeah, I'm sure the team behind We â¤ď¸ NYC will have never seen it, let alone read it, my feeling is that they might have been a little cautious about how they released the new logo mark because, as we all know by now, EVERYONE will fixate on the logo and fixate on it they did. Itâs a depressing read; comment after comment of âDesign Critique Bingoâ, nothing constructive, just tweet after tweet of WTFs and WHYs.
This article was shared with me earlier and I was asked my opinion. My response? It doesnât matter what I think. For starters, I'm not a native New Yorker or American. Secondly, what difference does it make if I dunk on it or drop a Marlon Brando âlook how they massacred my boyâ gif? What am I adding to the conversation by doing that? Nothing. But I do have thoughts.
Firstly, what a poison chalice of a brief. You canât simply change Milton Glaserâs original to âWeâ as thatâs well and truly in the âI COULDA DONE THATâ camp (even though that is drawing in that crowd), but you also canât take it too far because people donât react well to change. At all. So they were really on the back foot from day one. Maybe they genuinely thought they could do something unique and that everyone would embrace it (and if you canât go into a project with that mindset, you probably shouldnât bother).
Secondly, and this is a bit of a side point, I hand-on-heart believe that Milton Glaserâs original would in NO WAY get through the modern-day client/designer relationship. Thereâs a great story about how Glaser drew it in the back of a cab in the 70s and I just love the idea of doing that now and the marketing team looking at it and giving it the olâ âItâs a great start but weâd love to see another 12 versions by the end of the day, thanks.â I also canât shake the thought that the new ID looks a bit like the output of one of those client feedback memes (sorry, I really didnât want to add any sort of critique but couldnât help that one).
Thirdly (and I've said it before but it bears repeating), we need to stop judging a brand on its logo. Itâs such a weird fixation that everyone seems to have developed (is there really not enough going on in the world that we have to do this shit over and over again) and a lot of this falls on the design industry. Granted, the release of a brand can often be out of the agencyâs hands but it shouldnât stop us from calling these click baiters out, reminding them to stop judging so harshly on things theyâve had no insight on. You donât need to go far back to see how unfairly some brands have been judged â London 2012, BT, British Rail⌠all for the full brand ID to be released and everyone just gets on with it (at which time everyoneâs dunking on something else).
For what itâs worth, I genuinely donât mind the logo but, unfortunately, the broader We â¤ď¸ NYC ID and campaign isnât great â there are some lovely elements and the thought process behind it all is generally sound (some of the community-designed posters are awesome) but the typeface choice is a bit baffling and nothing feels cohesive at all (which could be a reference to the cultural melting pot that is NYC but maybe thatâs a stretch).
And thatâs my biggest problem with the whole campaign, it falls at nearly every hurdle (if only there were a negative space lightning bolt in there somewhere, weâd have a full house) â impossible brief, check; reworking of a classic work, check; everyone judging the entire piece solely on the logo, big fat check. Itâs the perfect storm.
Maybe theyâll change it, maybe they wonât. Maybe youâll get used to it, maybe you wonât. Maybe being one of the âdo you come with the carâ quote tweets will make you feel better but it doesnât really change anything.
Iâm not saying that we should put an end to design critiques and that non-designers shouldnât be allowed an opinion but there should be some kind of middle ground where branding can be seen on the whole rather than a logo in isolation. We need to stop the equivalent of just reading the banner headline. We have to keep reading. Because, ultimately, things do change and brands have to be modified for different and newer audiences and sometimes that means messing with someoneâs drawing they did in the back of a New York cab back in the 70s, so the more informed your critique is, the more chance the next rebrand wonât have you reaching for the keyboard to drop your (possibly not so) hot take.