Labour: Same politics, new logo (updated)
By Design Daily Team,
Labour has unveiled its brand new logo, revealing a stripped back, cleaner, all-red design, complete with a stereotypical Kiwi fern. The new design coincides with the launch of Labour’s new website, which, like the logo, looks cleaner and features added social media platforms like Twitter, flickr, YouTube (where you can watch politicians to your heart’s content) and a “join the conversation” Facebook button. And after a fair bit of digging and probing, we can reveal the creative buffs behind the new design are advertising agency Barnes, Catmur & Friends, though the agency's head of design, Crispin Schuberth, was responsible for the final logo design.
While the logo is new, it's actually intricately tied into the Labour Party of old. In keeping with what Daniel Barnes, creative director at Barnes, Catmur & Friends, describes as "...the Labour essentials and fundamental truths," the design harks back to the 1930's when the fern was a prominent element in the Labour Party. Back then it was common place for Labour Party politicians to wear silver fern pins.
“We did a lot of research with stakeholders and eventually the fern won through," says Barnes.
He says the agency had about six months to chip away at the new design and give the old logo an "upgrade". And because Labour is, after all, a political party with bigger fish to fry, Barnes says the agency was pretty much left to its own devices, though there was plenty of stakeholder interaction.
"Labour were more focused on policy rather than interfering too much in the design process," says Barnes. “A lot of these logo design can be quite fraught, particularly when you move into a highly politicised area. But this was a very smooth and cooperative process. All the stakeholders rallied around and we consulted with them closely as we went along.”
Brendon Burn's central Christchurch office was the first to be fitted out with the new logo in February.
It's in with the new...
And out with the old...
A very square number from the 1970s...
And while we're at it, have a gander at how campaign posters/billboard designs have changed over the years.
Comments
Chris
I have always thought political parties in NZ are a group that could really do with the help solid visual strategy.
The greens last election campaign showed how it could be done, but the two big parties have never had any communication that is engaging. Political branding should follow the trend that NZ has embraced at the moment and get pics of the people voting for them into their identity.
A logo isn't enough. The billboards and mailers that cram our landscape come election time are the aesthetic equivalent of supermarket mailers.
There is room for some really good work and has been for a long time.
Tim Archer
This isn't the same as the logo on the website - the b is different.
The 'ferning' could technically be much better, note the notch in the top second frond and the uneveness of the negative white stroke outlining the bottom side of the stalk.
The fronds don't particularly scale and rotate for a nice flow, but this is tough and many existing ferned logos aren't perfect either.
If it was unpaid work this really isn't so bad, but being another me-too friendly logo, an opportunity to really distinguish the party was missed. Chris is dead right.
Fraser Gardyne
Well it is certainly better than it was and hopefully it wasn't a freebie.
Maybe it is just me but I see two bespectacled eyes looking out at me with a nice spiky haircut - saying boo…
Don't get me started on ink spots or clouds!
Tim Archer
I didn't mean to imply that it was unpaid work, but rather that its execution was not of the level I'd hope for from paid work. Overall it is a major improvement on its predecessor.
tony hadlow
I think the new logo is a big improvement, however I agree with Chris about election time. The landscape sure changes with earnest claims from airbrushed people we don't recognize. Does the retro new logo mean that policy manifesto will change as well.
Roderick Lyons
I usually like very much the work out of the Catmur and Partners agency. On this project for the Labour Party however I do have serious doubts.
Firstly, why a silver fern, is it a silver fern?, above the logo/name? Kind of redunant I would have thought. We know as an audience that you are talking to us down here so you do not have to remind us where we come from/inhabit.
Type colour red: yes, we traditionally expect this of Labour, just as we expect Blue of National.
But is the type format chosen strong enough?
I can't help feeling that I am being asked to vote for a Canadian Labour Party what with the wishy-washy type face with hyphen? Makes it seem like La plus bour, very French.
I suppose if you choose consultants, eg designers, on a project, you buy in to their arguments. and go with it. Personally, I would have gone back to the brief and maybe questioned it.
Anonymous comments on this post are disabled. Please sign up to post a new comment.