New Downtwon Phx logo

[HooverDam]

Phoenix unveils 'X' logo
by Casey Newton and Sadie Jo Smokey - Oct. 20, 2008 04:01 PM
The Arizona Republic

A lime green 'X' marks the spot in a new marketing campaign designed to brand downtown Phoenix as a global destination.

A new logo for downtown shows the words "downtown Phoenix" at an angle, with a bold 'X' at the end breaking through an orange circle.

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership said the four-color logo will likely be accompanied by an all-purpose marketing slogan, "X marks the spot," to promote downtown destinations.

"I think it's brilliant," said Dale Jensen, a general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. "There are a million things you can do with that X."

The partnership and its consultant spent more than a year putting together a new logo for downtown, which will eventually replace "Copper Square" as the brand for downtown.

"It was driven by a realization that we were seeing a lot more opportunities downtown," said Dave Roderique, president and CEO of the partnership. "Things are changing very rapidly."

The new logo was unveiled Monday at a meeting of the partnership's board. Later this year, the partnership will launch a full-scale marketing campaign.

"At first I didn't like it, but I focused on the 'X' which made me pay attention to it," said MaryAnn Guerra, president of TGen Accelerators. "X marks the spot for anything you want to do."

The campaign aims to brand the 90-square block area as "Arizona's Urban Heart," a place with a "vibrant maverick spirit" and "captivating experiences."

"We see downtown Phoenix as the most urban experience that Arizona has to offer," said Eric Kingsbury, director of marketing strategy for SHR, which designed the logo.

Officials say the introduction of a new logo signals that Phoenix has matured from a young downtown into a "grown-up, action-packed city."

The campaign will be in place by February, when the NBA All-Star Game comes to town.

Well this doesn't have specifically to do with Modernism (especially not the MidCentury kind), but since it does relate to Phoenix development I thought I'd post it.

Personally, as a big supporter of Downtown, I'm embarrassed by this logo. It doesn't reflect Phoenix in anyway that I can tell. Its color scheme is irrelevant to the desert, and its obnoxious (lime green and reddish orange? ick!). Over emphasizing the letter X seems like a silly played out thing from the 90s (i.e. "X Games" or being "X treme") and doesn't reflect what I think we all want downtown to be, cool, sleek, modern and professional. 44 Monroe and One Central Park East, or the light rail trains, all represent a direction for a visual look that I think is where Phoenix should be headed, this logo doesn't represent that at all. It looks like its 10-20 years behind, which is usually how our downtown 'leaders' are, so maybe it does reflect Phoenix after all.

Maybe I'm over reacting about a logo, and I am glad they got rid of the confusing "Copper Square" name, but this logo is awful. I'm really going to cringe when I see it 30 feet tall on the sides of buildings downtown.

[Jason Hill]

I agree- the logo already looks ten years old... might as well say "our city SUX!"

[Robert A]

Wow. That's awful.

[hectoracuna]

Looks like a $99 logo to me. I would love to have been at the pitch meeting. X marks the spot?? Oh boy, sounds like a treasure-hunt puzzle on the back of kids' cereal box. I agree with HooverDam, the "X" is ancient, and in about 2 months that green-orange combo will be joining it. I'm surprised that black color wasn't a chocolate brown.

Now for the good stuff. Hmmm… uh… hmmm… yeah… well, I'll get back to you on that.

Say, HooverDam, I thought I saw you whizzing by on your bike while I sat at Maizie's patio on a recent night. Was gonna wave, but I couldn't put down my beer fast enough. By then you'd disappeared into the dark. That a regular route for you? Here's a wave-out to ya!

Oh, back to the logo. Perhaps marketing campaign will include lots and lots of scantly clad models, thus diverting all attention from the logo.

[Jason Hill]

It not only looks like a $99 logo- It looks like a logo for a 99 cent store!

[matthew]

i heard about this on kjzz this morning but i had no idea it was this bad. i totally agree with your criticisms, hoover.

[12below]

I make my living on doing corporate identity and company branding, and SHR is a big-time player charging big-time money for this design. The typefaces are amateurish, and don't get me started on the design. However, I can say from daily experience that a logo design can only be as good as the client allows. I just finished up a massive logo project, and I can say that the one they loved--and the one that they paid me for--is nowhere near what I thought was the best solution for them. But again, its the client's money and if they're happy with it then that's what matters. UNLESS, as sometimes happens with the bigger shops, they sometimes have a way of convincing the client that it's the best one, even if they don't like it so much. So you never know. I'd probably bet the design shop isn't super thrilled with it either.

[Jason Hill]

I can appreciate everyone's cool and measured responses here, but let's call this exactly what it is: a complete travesty! Unfortunately in this situation, the 'client' is representing us all. This is even worse than 'Copper Square'. Why would anyone sign off on a concept that turns one of the most unique cities in the country in to a generic symbol for anyplace? The whole point of branding is to differentiate something as a unique and recognizable separate entity. "Maverick spirit?" Give me a break.

[HooverDam]

Say, HooverDam, I thought I saw you whizzing by on your bike while I sat at Maizie's patio on a recent night. Was gonna wave, but I couldn't put down my beer fast enough. By then you'd disappeared into the dark. That a regular route for you? Here's a wave-out to ya!

No, I doubt that was me, my room mates bike recently broke and he's been borrowing mine, I haven't biked anywhere in about a month. But feel free to shout out things like "Do I know you from the internet!?" at strangers, it will surely lead to awesome results.

I wrote an email to the Downtown Phoenix partnership, and they responded, which was nice. Here's there response:

Sorry to hear you don’t like the logo, and I appreciate your thoughts. This has been a lengthy process, and we knew going in that we were going to have a certain number of people who weren’t going to like what was developed – no matter what the choice was there were bound to be some concerns. You are correct in that the Copper Square name never really worked and had to be changed -- in the research that led up to this decision, the vast majority of folks felt that the “Downtown Phoenix” name was where we needed to go, rather than trying to invent some new name. The process that our branding consultant (SHR Perceptual Management – who has done branding work for all sorts of companies ranging from Volkswagon to IBM to PetsMart) went through was very extensive, and included focus groups with consumers and stakeholders. They developed a series of possible concepts, which we narrowed down through meetings with numerous downtown stakeholders – including the Partnership Board, the Mayor and City Council, city staff, the Phoenix Chamber, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Phoenix Community Alliance, Roosevelt Row, Artlink, etc. There wasn’t a single concept that everyone loved, but this was the one that gathered the highest level of support.

Attached are a few of the powerpoint slides from the presentation SHR made to our Board yesterday. The first slide explains the brand identity we are trying to portray. The second shows some of the visual clues that they pulled out of their “sensory positioning” process prior to developing the concepts. The third and fourth slides explain how this concept meets the rationale that was presented. The fifth one shows some concepts for possible applications that could be developed – one of our key criteria was that it had to be complementary to the existing copper color used throughout downtown, since we are going to have to continue to use that color for the time being due to budget constraints.

I know this won’t change your opinion, but I do want you to know that there was some thought put into this process, and we did involve a lot of downtown stakeholders. I’d be happy to sit down with you and go through the entire process if you’d like. Thanks, Dave

Dave= David Roderique, the President/CEO of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.

Here are the slides he sent me:

[12below]

Eh, whatever. Over it. Moving on.

[hectoracuna]

Great posting. That's part of the pitch I was referring to. It's all in the pitch, that's what sells logos most of the time. Without a pitch you're at the mercy of "I LIKE PINK" mentality. The client hires the design team because THEY are the experts of design. Otherwise the client would just dictate the design. Now at least I understand it, but still not a fan. Of course I have the disadvantage of being a study of logo-making and design and my harsh criticism is based on the aesthetic impact on ME and how I compare this design to the thousands of designs I've scrutinized in the past. My own many, many, aesthetic failures included. Indeed the design is "fresher" than the copper reference from mining's heyday of the previous century. It's not a trend-setter by any means, and I have a feeling you're not going to see it on the pages of Communication Arts. And hey, at least it doesn't look like a tattoo, the look-de-jour of today.

[PixelPixie]

They developed a series of possible concepts, which we narrowed down through meetings with numerous downtown stakeholders – including the Partnership Board, the Mayor and City Council, city staff, the Phoenix Chamber, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Phoenix Community Alliance, Roosevelt Row, Artlink, etc. There wasn’t a single concept that everyone loved, but this was the one that gathered the highest level of support.

This is what happens when you design by committee rather than letting a design specialist be a design specialist. You get a logo with a two-year shelf life that will have already lived out its first good year before it even sees the light of day in a major campaign (that everyone probably also has to agree on). Cheer up, someday Jamba Juice colors from the 90s will come back in style.

And hey, look, they've tried. They did their research, and made their justifications (so many of them!). As a design instructor I've seen a LOT of underdeveloped and outdated logos in my time and this doesn't hold a candle to the worst. It is competent, and that's about... it.

I like how the kicky trapezoid shape is touted on their Powerpoint as 100% unique, as if no major Phoenix institution has ever used a trapezoid with angled type before, ever. This excellent midcentury modern landmark on 16th Street somehow bubbled up immediately through my subconscious. Yay for Paco Paco Club Premiere!

[cara]

Why wasn't our own Jason Hill on this project???!!! It really is awful. Those powerpoint slides look incredibly amateur. We had the same "X" marks the spot theme on my 1992 Apollo High School Yearbook.......

[HooverDam]

Why wasn't our own Jason Hill on this project???!!! It really is awful. Those powerpoint slides look incredibly amateur. We had the same "X" marks the spot theme on my 1992 Apollo High School Yearbook.......

Haha I think in my email to the downtown Phoenix partnership I said something like "Why the heck wasn't Jason Hill designing this!?"

I agree w/ what PixelPixie about the designing by committee and the justifications. I think they have all these justifications and it probably made the client forget about their perhaps initial dislike of the visual aspect of the logo. Even in the presentation though, there's no real justification as to how it represents Phoenix, not in anything other than a very abstract way anyhow. Copper square at least reflected Arizona's history, this doesn't reflect anything unique about Phoenix, not our beautiful mountains, not our sunshine, not our gorgeous desert, not our vibrant arts scene, not our openness or sense of opportunity, it could just as easily say "Downtown Anywhere."

Oh I suppose that since Phoenix ends in an X makes this super unique, what was I thinking?

[12below]

Welcome to the world of ad agencies and marketing communications companies. This is pretty much standard operating procedure. SHR did exactly what they were paid to do; research develop and launch a rebranding that the client committee approved. It's easy to just say "it's ugly". It's another thing to understand the process of how they got there. It's a logo for cripes sake, and it's not like this logo has staying power anyways. It'll be gone in a few years when the next agency pitches their angle at rebranding downtown.

Oh, that's right, I said I was done and over it... I've got my own problem clients and ugly logos to contend with.

Sidebar: For those of you who have been through this "design by committee" process, wanna read something painful? Make sure to read the blue links for the full scope.
http://www.underconsideration.com/brand ... wabbit.php