Dutch govt. logo troubles (again)
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- vrmbr
It never ends, does it? Poor Studio Dumbar.
http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/art…
some good criticism from dutch design influentials
http://blog.adformatie.nl/index.…(still looking for english link on this)
- Spookytim0
Whats the story in a nutshell please?
- ian0
summarise, in english please...
- Corvo0
The Crown wants the same logo everywhere throughout Dutch institutions instead of specific logos for each?
- vrmbr0
wow, Total Identity is looking into sueing the Dutch govt. for lost hours on working on the pitch, but i can see their point. this logo was decided by the govt. rom the start, so any brief seems to have been superfluous.
- ian0
- vrmbr0
ok, very short:
before this logo was designed, all depts. of the govt. had their own logo, some more arty/abstract then the other. They thought this became confusing and thus decided to let companies pitch to design one single logo as the basis for all depts.Studio Dumbar (oh how not surprising) won the pitch, designed the logo, which basically is so traditional, we can just pack our bags and travel back to middle ages. And now they want to take it a step further (after presentation) and change it again, they want the Royal orange little cubes in it as well....
- ian0
Hmm...
On 29 January 2008 NRC Handelsblad reported that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende contradicts the criticism that the Cabinet has improperly paid 60,000 Euros for a new logo for the Dutch National Government. It is true that Studio Dumbar turned up with a logo already in use by the Ministry of General Affairs, but according to Balkenende the government is not only paying for the image.
- vrmbr0
the issue at hand here is that most design companies feel cheated, there was a brief, but the whole thing has been politicized behind the curtains, there was no fair and transparent judgement of the submissions, they say. They never made it clear why they chose Dumbar..etc.
- neverblink0
basicly they want the old logo, they already had.. but just vectorized.. for 60,000 euro!
- ian0
Actually, I think they wanted the old logo they were already using for one dept in vector form to been used throughout the rest of the govt branding, thats where the problems seem to be arising... or have i got that wrong?
- yes, that's part of it. but the bigger issue for the major design companies is the way their decisions contradicts their briefvrmbr
- brief.vrmbr
- Ah, that wasn't in the above article, I can see why they'd be a bit miffed so.ian
- not just a "bit"... seriously pissed, some of them are. they say hundreds and hundreds of hours have been spent..vrmbr
- ian0
As far as crests go though, it is quite nice and refined.
- vrmbr0
here's a mix with (almost) all the old logo's:
in the logo of "Ministerie van Algemene Zaken" you'll find the one they simply adapted..
- neverblink0
I really like the VROM logo/housestyle/identity
and I don't like the OCW logo.. (personal bias / once did a book for them)
- vrmbr0
btw. i liked the fact that each dept. had their own identity, it fits the image of tolerance and diversity. now we are going back to a police state image. just as were NL seems to be going anyway, with all those Christians at power.
- vrmbr0
i always liked the Rijkswaterstaat logo. But then, i worked for them, and had a good relationship until everything got reorganized from the national level... the adaptations for the different depts. were quite nice.
- vrmbr0
btw. they also state it's gonna save the govt. 5 millions euros annually by chosing to work with one single logo.
- neverblink0
I can see that happening, as they would only have to use one single printer to print all their designs and any surplus could be shipped to other departments. Furthermore, as it's monochrome, the printing costs itself should be less as well.
- naturally. and this is common sense. yet, i wonder how this will conflict the govt.policies to not work with ..vrmbr
- only a few companies, instead of spreading commissions..vrmbr
- they only need to show they asked multiple companies for an 'offerte', after that they can just pick whomever they wantneverblink