Updates From The Ministry Of Fixing That Which Ain’t Broke

In February of 2005, we reported with shock and outrage that the Ontario government had issued an RFP to replace Ontario’s elegant, classic and functional wordmark and logo:

The Ontario logo is about clarity and efficiency. That’s precisely what government should be about — not glitzy marketing and sex-appeal. It looks authoritative enough to go on a badge. The pretty Tourism Ontario logo — probably the kind of thing the gub’mint is looking for in its RFP — would look stupid printed onto a traffic ticket or park ranger’s uniform. Besides, the [current] stylized logo, with its rounded containing box, is easily identifiable even in the absence of any text.

Well, a year and a half later, and they finally did it: They relegated a classic design to the logo cemetary, ushering in a thorny-looking and most unflowerlike looking trillium made up of human forms stolen from the Special Olympics logo. It’s like the Downsview Park logo with its hair in a spike.

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As we expected, it’s glitzier than the old one, and less functional, too. And, of course, they managed to burn through nearly a quarter-million on the redesign. And who better to hire for the job than Bensimon-Byrne — whose client roster also includes, surprise surprise, the Ontario Liberal Party.

The CBC notes with interest that since running Dalton’s election ad campaign, the agency has received $6 million in contracts from the Liberal government. The NDP called foul on the agency’s last gubmint deal, for the stupid.ca anti-smoking ad contract.

Update:

A Toronto Star reader nails it:

“What a wasteful use of taxpayers’ dollars. For 40 years, our logo has been a simple, classic trademark. Now we have some stylized, easy-to-outdate logo, suspicious in its design. Reverse your field on this one, Dalton. Goodness knows, you’ve done it on enough other issues.”

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