Ontario government wastes a bunch of money
I was reading the Toronto Star about a month ago and I saw an article about Ontario’s new and improved trillium logo. It looks like shit. Here’s what the original Ontario trillium has looked like for the past 50 years:
It’s simple, clean and I’d say timeless as well. It’s been practically the same since it was introduced back in 1964. Over the years there were a few minor changes made, but obviously nothing drastic. Now all of a sudden, some wiseguy has decided it is time to “re-brand” Ontario. The new, updated trillium logo looks like this:
Uh… wtf? Oh, it’s clever. If you look closely, there are human-like figures in the design (those stupid dots are the people’s heads).
So how did our money-conscious government come up with this new design? I’ll give you a hint. It’s one of the four following options:
a) held a contest, offering prizes and/or bragging rights
b) held a contest for students, offering a scholarship for the chosen design
c) got a famous Canadian artist to donate their time to create the new logo
d) wasted $219,000 hiring a “Liberal-friendly” advertising agency
If you guessed option d, sadly, you are correct. Come on! Spending over two hundred grand on a shitty logo is an enormous waste of time and money. Spending that much on a good logo is still a waste of money. Furthermore, was there any advance notice of this logo change? Who was in charge of this? And how could they have spent that much money? I’m sure there were a lot of “hidden fees”. Like, I bet they had to do a couple of studies first before coming up with some design ideas. That was probably followed by some market research. Then there was probably some sort of approval process.
If this is the way the government is going to use MY money, then I’m not going to pay taxes anymore. Do the people in power even realize that the money they are spending is not theirs? Do they understand that there are numerous other places that money could have been spent?
Ugh. This kind of thing makes me mad.
Chris Erwin says:
I do like the new logo, it’s not a huge change from what they had, just a modernized version of what they had.
Many companies change their logo, and people scratch their head why. IE: UPS, AT&T, Mastercard. While their old logos were great, timeless logos, the new logos are basically modernized versions of the old logo, and in 50 years people will be scratching their head again when they decide to bring their logo up to date. I think people just have a hard time adjusting to change.
Now I totally agree with you that $219,000 is a TOTAL disgusting waste of money. In fact I saw an article in the paper about the City of Oshawa’s new logo, and it’s $100,000+ price tag. I couldn’t believe it! Our company Thirdcircle, a local Oshawa company, could’ve come up with something even better, and about $90,000 cheaper. Or like you said they could’ve held a contest which is what Durham Regional Transit did when they needed a new logo. You get hundreds (if not thousands) of design choices to pick from pretty much free. The public is happy because thier tax dollars weren’t wasted. The designer is happy because his logo is now in the public eye in a big way! and he/she walks away with a “handsome” prize
I guess it’s true, People love spending other peoples hard earned money.
July 28th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Spencer "trillium" McCormack says:
I’ve got a few points/questions to add to this here pot.
First of all I side with Rob in the whole, the new design isn’t a pimp, it looks more like some sort of World Cup or Olympic slogan, it looks like it would beat the old slogan in a running race so to speak. The old slogan was good because of it’s simplicity and dumpy-slow running style, in my opinion. You know how you see a New York state license plate and it’s got that picture shit on it? That’s no good I would feel mildly embarassed if I moved to New York and had to drive a car with those plates on my car. Ontario, Quebec and Michigan all have that straight two tone plate, very simple very civic and I like it. When I worked in a restaurant we would rarely use cheddar cheese, all mozzarella. Do you know why? Because colour costs money. The old logo and the current plate say to me, “hey Spencer, no unnesesary spending here.”
I didn’t read the Star story but where did you get “Liberal-friendly”? Was it from a conservative politician? Not to be a liberal booster or anything if they paid me $219,000 to do that, I’d be pretty Liberal-friendly. And speaking of Liberal-friendly have you noticed if you drive west on the 401 just after Lakeridge road in Ajax is a roadside sign saying there will be a highway widening? But that’s not the strange thing, This is: the signs are red and white Ontario’s colours are blue and white and this isn’t just any old mettalic red-hot red, no! This red is maroon-ish liberal party of Canada red. Call me crazy but is that a little subliminal “You can thank the liberal party for the upcoming ease in traffic,” I think it is. Also, when I drove to London those red and white “positive-change” signs were all over the 401.
I would like to organize with you not paying any taxes. Listen, we don’t own any property, neither of us have any health problems (zing) and I’m a fucking doctor more-or-less!
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Mike says:
Hey Spender, I can offer my Dentist/cosmetic surgery expertise, if anyone needs any inexpensive medical treatment, lets talk.
August 15th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Nigorache says:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c153/rottenabode/Proclaimers_206887a.jpg
To find out more go here:
http://206.225.86.190/cs/forums/1/2414600/ShowPost.aspx#2414600
August 26th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Danno Cardinal says:
Ontario’s new logo is a joke. It looks like a bunch of people drowning in some sort of a tide rather than a stylized italicized logo.
I could have came up with a better design. The new design kinda looks gay if you ask me.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Doug says:
I think the focus of the “Ontario” brand image is not so much how this logo turned out, which is completely opinion based. Some like it some don’t. (I personally hate it) However, I think the larger issue at hand is how the government went about initiating the change. Basically this sort of logo which represents not only the Ontario government, but the province of Ontario should have been a more community based project. In an age of community based websites and community based television, does it not make sense to allow every willing participant the opportunity to help shape Ontario’s image? $219,000 to an AD agency to create a “brand image” for a community. Thats not right at all. I’m suprised it didn’t turn out worse. It is still pretty awful.
And to Chris Erwin saying “…it’s not a huge change from what they had,”. DUDE! What logo are you looking at? Yes it represents a trilium, but c’mon… It is VERY if not a COMPLETELY different representation of the original Ontario Trillium logo. I am shocked you like it. SHOCKED I SAY!
March 6th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Wenda Atkin says:
My partner and I are in the Graphics business and we are great at logo design.
I fumed over this. it is soooo hard to make an honest dollar in this field.
You can bet we were never informed about this project or invited to submit a bid.
And this isn’t the end of your tax dollars being wasted. They will need to have all their letterhead reprinted and new signage installed. This is a huge province-wide undertaking.
Could have been worse - I recall the Feds (Liberals) spending $573,000 on a new logo during their Adscam project. That dollar figure has been imbedded in my brain ever since.
If anyone here would like us to design you a logo, we can do it or you for as little as $200.
It’s a bargain as you can see.
You may check our work and awards at
http://www.beyondextremes.com
We are honest, hard working and very creative. We live in Burlington.
(Thanks for the opportunity to comment, Rob)
March 21st, 2007 at 10:40 am
Douglas Payne says:
Wow. I am a 14 year veteran in the ad agency biz on the creative side and this still surprises me. OK, art is still essentially a subjective call, whether it’s “working art” (e.g., commercial) or art that sits on its ass in a museum for others to enjoy. I’ll refrain from weighing in with my opinion on this particular design since I have submitted work that has been called everything from “shit” to “wonderful.” What I have never done is charge a client some outrageous fee — esp. to a nonprofit — like the one Ontario was charged. That fee is simply criminal, and I can assure you the principals of the agency are/were laughing all te way to the bank.
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:14 am