David Brown

A good read from the RGD on the $89,000 budget and best practices for logo redesign as it pertains to the new Province of Ontario logo soon to be unveiled by the Ford government.

My opinion is that $89,000 is a bit too much to be spending on a redesign for two reasons:

First, timing. The current government is making significant cuts to spending on healthcare and education (among other things), so I do not believe spending to redesign the province’s logo makes sense in this fiscal climate (based on how dire the government claims it is). Secondly, if redesigning the logo is a priority for the government — the Premier seems to want to put his personal stamp on everything, including license plates — then I think from a design perspective, the obvious move is to scrap the three-men-in-a-hot-tub logo in favour of returning to something similar to the iconic trillium developed in 1964. That design was beautiful and timeless and I don’t think anyone would oppose it — it’s the ‘low-hanging fruit’ option here and that shouldn’t cost $89,000. I’m not suggesting the work that branding agencies do isn’t worth top dollar — and this figure is probably low if we’re talking about what is essentially a corporate rebrand for a large organization — but I think this is the type of solution that doesn’t need the kind of research and creative development worthy of that price tag.

For me, the bigger task is the cost of implementation: replacement of the old logo within the multitude of communications it currently exists and the development of an updated brand and style guide as a foundation to move forward with the creation of new materials. The $89,000 cost likely included some kind of usage/style guide but the government will need to set aside a healthy budget moving forward to update all of the various applications of this new logo over time.

In the meantime, we’ll await the result. Here’s hoping for a return to the elegant simplicity and timelessness of that 1964 beauty which seems to make the most sense, but the Ontario Provincial Government under Doug Ford has shown a disturbing propensity to stub their toe on literally every direction they take, which should make the design community feel a little uneasy about this.