Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

LunaSea

(2,927 posts)
Mon Jun 8, 2015, 10:47 AM Jun 2015

"$46K to design a state logo I could've made on MS Paint by accident."

That was the twitter comment ADweek quoted in its headline-
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/tennessee-wanted-consistency-elicited-mockery-its-new-logo-164941

Nine months for a marketing outfit to come up with this-


This by the way is simply to replace the states "Tristar" logo, which in my opinion, does not need replacing, especially when more important things like teacher pay in the state is being cut.

One Knoxville writer points out-
TN never existed as an abbreviation for Tennessee until 1963.

Most Tennesseans who ever lived­—W.C. Handy, Patsy Cline, James Agee, Bob Neyland—never saw the letters “TN” and understood them to mean “Tennessee.” But it was in 1963 that the U.S. Postal Service imposed its ZIP code system, and with it a standardized two-letter code for every state. The idea was not just that two letters might be easier for overworked employees to type in, but that a standardized two-letter state code would leave room for the new five-digit codes. That number’s what the postal employees and their machinery really paid attention to, and you don’t want a long state name crowding it off. In a way, it was a deliberate diminution of the importance of states in the postal scheme of things. The ZIP code is supreme.


To the post office, in 1963, the N is there for one reason: because the other T state, Texas, doesn’t have an N in it. The implication is that without the N, folks might get Tennessee mixed up with Texas. It’s the way robots think.

So the N means, in rough translation, “Not Texas.”

TN has no official meaning except at the post office, and even there, it’s meant to be paired with a ZIP code. If the red is indeed a political statement, the TN suggests an irony. It was the imposition of a federal taxpayer-dependent bureaucracy.

http://www.knoxmercury.com/2015/05/27/the-problem-with-tn/

A change.org petition has been organized-
https://www.change.org/p/tennessee-governor-save-the-tristar

More mockery can be found in a story by WSMV in Nashville-
http://www.wsmv.com/story/29128677/new-state-logo-prompts-online-outrage-humor




11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"$46K to design a state logo I could've made on MS Paint by accident." (Original Post) LunaSea Jun 2015 OP
New TN logo not replacing tristar or flag, state says Go Vols Jun 2015 #1
State offices and organizations mostly use the Tristar. LunaSea Jun 2015 #5
I don't want to see it anywhere! southerncrone Jun 2015 #11
Too cheap HassleCat Jun 2015 #2
A quick search of "business logo fails" revealed more than a couple really bad ones: Buzz Clik Jun 2015 #3
Put a number above TN and it looks like Periodic Table of Elements! Va Lefty Jun 2015 #4
Except TN is now W on periodic table. (Did they do it for Bush???) valerief Jun 2015 #7
Quite correct! LunaSea Jun 2015 #9
Awesome! Va Lefty Jun 2015 #10
And the ZIP code was created to handle the massive influx of business mail made possible valerief Jun 2015 #6
Lol LunaSea Jun 2015 #8

Go Vols

(5,902 posts)
1. New TN logo not replacing tristar or flag, state says
Mon Jun 8, 2015, 10:51 AM
Jun 2015
You won't see that new Tennessee state logo on the state flag or replacing the tristar symbol, though, said David Smith, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Haslam.

"To be clear: nothing is happening to the flag, tri-stars or state seal," Smith said Tuesday in an email to The Tennessean.

"There is no singular graphic identity for state government currently. This (is) about a consistent graphic identity for state government. The flag and tri-stars are bigger than state government."


http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/26/new-tn-logo-replacing-tri-stars-flag-state-says/27980857/


a waste of money

LunaSea

(2,927 posts)
5. State offices and organizations mostly use the Tristar.
Mon Jun 8, 2015, 11:08 AM
Jun 2015

Or variations of it. I get the need for unification, but this is very poor, and expensive solution to that problem. Picking one of the existing (many are quite elegant) Tristar versions, and declaring it the one for all offices, could have been done with a memo.

Petition is a little over halfway to the 5000 mark goal.

 

HassleCat

(6,409 posts)
2. Too cheap
Mon Jun 8, 2015, 11:01 AM
Jun 2015

See what they got for $46k? They should have spent $460k. Then they would have something not simply bad, but truly awful.

 

Buzz Clik

(38,437 posts)
3. A quick search of "business logo fails" revealed more than a couple really bad ones:
Mon Jun 8, 2015, 11:03 AM
Jun 2015

I don't dare risk posting them here, so click below at your own peril:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-worst-corporate-logo-fails-2014-1#

valerief

(53,235 posts)
6. And the ZIP code was created to handle the massive influx of business mail made possible
Mon Jun 8, 2015, 11:09 AM
Jun 2015

by the computer. So businesses created the need for ZIP codes.

The social correspondence of the earlier century gave way, gradually at first, and then explosively, to business mail. By 1963, business mail constituted 80 percent of the total volume. The single greatest impetus in this great outpouring of business mail was the computer, which brought centralization of accounts and a growing mass of utility bills and payments, bank deposits and receipts, advertisements, magazines, insurance premiums, credit card transactions, department store and mortgage billings, and payments, dividends, and Social Security checks traveling through the mail.


http://inventors.about.com/od/xyzstartinventions/a/zipcode.htm
Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Tennessee»"$46K to design a st...