Design is subjective. Good, bad, boring, interesting: these are all value judgments based on any individual's lived experiences. The art they've seen, the brands they engage with, and the countless "designed" things that they interact with on a daily basis all influence what makes "good."
That's what makes design criticism so interesting to me, especially when the eye is cast toward monolithic agencies like Pentagram, who are, to many, beyond rebuke. Even if you don't know the agency by name, you know their work. From Waze to Jack Daniels to Reddit, their cooperative of designers has had a hand in countless iconic brands.
That's why I was so stunned at the comments section for their announcement of a new logo for Design Austin, a non-profit designed to promote the design sector in the city.
The reaction from the design community was, broadly speaking... not good. From criticisms about the simplicity of the design to the Impact-adjacent typeface to the legibility issues that caused that many to read this as "Design Autism", people weren't sparing in their comments.
There will always be skepticism around the work of major agencies like this, but many of these criticisms rang true with me. That said, I needed to know what the intent was behind the simple approach to this project to know what the designer's thoughts were behind the choices they made.
According to DJ Stout, the Pentagram Partner that oversaw this project, this was the driving influence behind the color choices and the reflection symbolism that underlies the logo:
"Inspiration for the new mark came from the Colorado River, and Lady Bird Lake, the major waterway that runs through the heart of the city and gives the Texas state capitol its distinctive personality. The bustling city is built around the lake and the reflections of its gleaming glass buildings stretch out across it. Austin is a reflection of its design and the design of Austin is a reflection of the city’s innovative 'can-do' spirit."
Source: DJ Stout's Instragram announcement of the campaign.
I can understand the choice of blue to represent the water, but the idea of a reflection is a pretty well-trodden design concept.
For me, the biggest questions come when they speak to the idea of a "distinctive personality" for the city of Austin that is reflected in the logo. Honestly, I'm just not seeing it, and a big part of the problem is the typeface they chose.
What's distinctive about this bold, sans serif typeface? It doesn't have much personality to it at all, much less when you look at it considering the great work being done by Design Austin's community of artists. I mean, look at just their most recent Instagram posts!
There is a wealth of creativity and personality at play in their own community. It really begs the question of why they went with a large, safe branding agency rather than handing the reins to a local artist.
Am I off base here? What are your thoughts: is this a brilliantly simple logo or is it, as one Instagram user put it, "inappropriate for even a little festival in a small village?"
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