- Joined
- Apr 17, 2021
ISU updates its logo
- Thread starter yuumagical
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2021
Personally, I'm firmly in the neutral category (closer to disliking it than being truly neutral, but close enough). It looks rather generic to me, but I don't hate it. I could see myself getting used to it over time. I wonder whether the gradient on the logo will look as cool during an actual event as it does on the example photo.
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2012
All the problems that this sport has, and the ISU decides that the thing they most need to tackle is their logo. 
Typical ISU. Not getting their priorities right.
Talking more generally, why do companies and organisations waste a pile of money changing their logos?
I don't know about anybody else, but when I get a letter or e-mail with a familiar name on it but an unfamiliar logo, I automatically think "scam", and put it straight in the bin without opening it. And I am sure I am not the only one that thinks like that.
It takes years to build up brand recognition. So why go to the bother of having to go through all that all again by changing your logo? It's just unnecessary.
Re-brandings cost a lot of money. It's not just a case of paying the designers for the new design and that's it in terms of costs. There is also the cost of replacing everything that has the old logo on it. And depending how much has to be replaced, that can really multiply the cost.
So many re-brandings fall into that category. And it makes you think "They paid silly amounts of money to designers to come up with a new logo, and they came up with that?!"
I'm going to take you into my first love, motorsports, for some examples of this.
Let's start with the governing body of motorcycle racing. In 1922 they introduced a very clever logo. It looked like a coat of arms, but it incorporated so many things associated with hte sport. For example, the winged urn at the top is actually an engine block. And the main body is surrounded with a garland wreath, like what is presented to the podium finishers. Here is the slightly modified version used from 1959 (when they changed their name from the FICM to the FIM) until 2008:
Then in 2008 this got simplified down to a stylised engine block:
And then last year, it got replaced with this very generic logo:
And then there is their flagship championship. After the Motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship took on the "MotoGP" name in 2000, it started using a very clever logo incorporating a chequered flag:
In the years since then, there have been a few tweeks made, such as rounding off some of the corners, and various changes to the writing (capitalising letters, changing font, etc.) But, it largely stayed the same until the end of last season, when a new generic logo was introduced:
And you should have heard the clap-trap that they had explaining the new logo. Hey, they even got an actress, Emilia Clarke, in to try to make it sound convincing. But, it still sounded like utter clap-trap!
As my final example, we move to four wheels.
I thought the Formula 1 logo introduced in 1986 was clever, with the silhouette of an F1 car incorporated into the FIA logo:
But the logo introduced in 1994 was totally ingenious, with the hidden "1" beside the red herring that you assume is a stylised "1":
When Liberty Media took over ownership of F1, they introduced a new generic logo:
This also had a lot of clap-trap to explain it. "The lines of two cars going side-by-side around the last corner to the finish line". Like, what?!
If you need to explain what a logo is, it is not a good logo.
CaroLiza_fan
Typical ISU. Not getting their priorities right.
Talking more generally, why do companies and organisations waste a pile of money changing their logos?
I don't know about anybody else, but when I get a letter or e-mail with a familiar name on it but an unfamiliar logo, I automatically think "scam", and put it straight in the bin without opening it. And I am sure I am not the only one that thinks like that.
It takes years to build up brand recognition. So why go to the bother of having to go through all that all again by changing your logo? It's just unnecessary.
Re-brandings cost a lot of money. It's not just a case of paying the designers for the new design and that's it in terms of costs. There is also the cost of replacing everything that has the old logo on it. And depending how much has to be replaced, that can really multiply the cost.
So many re-brandings fall into that category. And it makes you think "They paid silly amounts of money to designers to come up with a new logo, and they came up with that?!"
I'm going to take you into my first love, motorsports, for some examples of this.
Let's start with the governing body of motorcycle racing. In 1922 they introduced a very clever logo. It looked like a coat of arms, but it incorporated so many things associated with hte sport. For example, the winged urn at the top is actually an engine block. And the main body is surrounded with a garland wreath, like what is presented to the podium finishers. Here is the slightly modified version used from 1959 (when they changed their name from the FICM to the FIM) until 2008:
Then in 2008 this got simplified down to a stylised engine block:
And then last year, it got replaced with this very generic logo:
And then there is their flagship championship. After the Motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship took on the "MotoGP" name in 2000, it started using a very clever logo incorporating a chequered flag:
In the years since then, there have been a few tweeks made, such as rounding off some of the corners, and various changes to the writing (capitalising letters, changing font, etc.) But, it largely stayed the same until the end of last season, when a new generic logo was introduced:
And you should have heard the clap-trap that they had explaining the new logo. Hey, they even got an actress, Emilia Clarke, in to try to make it sound convincing. But, it still sounded like utter clap-trap!
As my final example, we move to four wheels.
I thought the Formula 1 logo introduced in 1986 was clever, with the silhouette of an F1 car incorporated into the FIA logo:
But the logo introduced in 1994 was totally ingenious, with the hidden "1" beside the red herring that you assume is a stylised "1":
When Liberty Media took over ownership of F1, they introduced a new generic logo:
This also had a lot of clap-trap to explain it. "The lines of two cars going side-by-side around the last corner to the finish line". Like, what?!
If you need to explain what a logo is, it is not a good logo.
CaroLiza_fan
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- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
@CaroLiza_fan the ISU is not just figure skating. I agree there are many issues with figure skating... but it seems to me, as a follower of everything else ISU, that Speed skating, short and long track are doing fine. So, I don't think a change of logo is something inappropriate. Now, i voted in the middle for this logo... it's nice but meh... it's nothing special. I didn't really care for the previous one.. so i am okay with it, without being amazed by it.
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2018
It's a bit dated actually and not exactly memorable, but it's okay, I've seen worse.
(Did anyone read the generic guff of the statement? Every single pr and advertising cliche they could stuff in, and not one fresh or interesting sentence. The logo and branding is all cosmetic after all, I have been with employers who spend a mint on cosmetics and empty 'mission statements'.)
(Did anyone read the generic guff of the statement? Every single pr and advertising cliche they could stuff in, and not one fresh or interesting sentence. The logo and branding is all cosmetic after all, I have been with employers who spend a mint on cosmetics and empty 'mission statements'.)
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- Joined
- Apr 17, 2021
I like the use of the blue colors too! Then again, this is coming from someone who has always loved playing around with the gradient filters in digital art programs...I like the new contrasting colors of the site that just deployed
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2020
Why is there no option "I do not care, it doesn't matter", lol?
Anyone here really thought that it was the logo that was the main problem of ISU requiring the most urgent attention? And that changing the logo will change anything (apart from the logo, that is)?
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