Here’s the new logo for the Big 10 conference…Everyone pretty much agrees that this sucks. This looks like it was slapped together in 10 minutes for a presentation of initial comps.
Don’t blame the design firm!
The old logo was clever. The “11” in the negative space represents the fact that there were really 11 schools and not ten. Of course that had to change now that the Big Ten is 12 schools. I’m sure that Pentagram, the design firm, presented an update of the logo incorporating a hidden 12, but the committee didn’t want to to the same old thing.
The new logo screams COMPROMISED DESIGN. It’s boring and complicated at the same time. Why dose the ‘G’ look like a zero and the “I” look like a one? That reads as “B10 Ten” and makes no sense. I think the reason this went bad was that the firm was told to tack on the word “ten.” I’ll bet the committee figured that nobody would get the logo without the word “ten.”
Here’s the actual logo the the Big Ten. If you go to the design firm’s website, they show this version, and not the version with the additional ten. It’s super sleek, hip, simplified, and sill maintains that college feel through typography.
Isn’t this a ton cooler than the logo at the top that was originally presented to the world? This simple logo makes sense. By just saying “Big” (depending how you look at it) the logo de-emphasizes the number of teams. That’s a good idea since there are 12 schools and not 10. I wonder what the response would have been to this logo if everyone saw this instead of the compromised design.
This approach is kinda like the new Mountain Dew bottles that just say “MTD Dew” or Gatoraid logo that now I think is just a “G.” You could argue that this isn’t the approach for the Big Ten, but clearly, this is the direction the committee agreed to at one point. Not everyone would be happy with the “mountain dew” approach, but now no one is happy. Some president who didn’t have time to go the first marketing meeting got scared and freaked out on the new logo direction.
Here’s Pentegram’s website…That’s where I got these images.
If a design firm is not allowed to carry a design through, but made to compromise the design, it falls apart.
“I know we said we wanted to go with this new logo, but my wife didn’t like it. You have to just add the word “ten” at the bottom. Then the logo will be all things to all people.”
I’ve heard people blame the design firm. They did it. They should have refused to compromise. Get a grip. It’s not Pentagram’s logo, it’s the Big Ten’s logo. I’m sure Pentagram tried to fight this. In the end you can’t blow off your clients. Would you go back to a barber who gives you a crew cut when you only wanted a trim? Design is a business.
I hope that in the end, they use the “B10” (or “BIG”) version of the logo. I suspect that is what will happen. It would be a shame to scrap the whole thing.
Now don’t get me started on the division names….Leaders and Ledgends?
