I don't know whether to laugh or cry with the selection of an acorn as the new logo for the new AnnArbor.com.
Most of the people responding - and this has by far been the most commented on post yet - are flabbergasted that the new company ("by and for the residents of Ann Arbor") picked a New York firm to come up with a logo so colorless and uninteresting as to be a joke.
Once again, the poor quality, the inside-the-box thinking, does not bode well for the future of this enterprise. This is so bad you have to believe it is a joke meant to garner a lot of comments and then create a change.
Can I get a witness?
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8 comments:
Well, I guess if you look at the thing and see an out-of-touch artist, yeah, that could work for an Ann Arbor logo.
Seriously, how much money was spent on this garbage?
I'll bet it was at least enough to pay a good journalist a few months pay.
Does anyone at Newhouse pay attention to this stuff?
judging by the spending habits detailed in the Newhouse profile, I'd say no, Newhouse does not pay attention to this stuff.
also revealing in the Newhouse profile is Sam's disdain for the Internet.
Rumor has it a company out of England also has a hand in the annarbor.com behind the scenes stuff. It is a rumor.
First of all, permeate means to "pass through" which I suspect is what annarbor.com is gonna do like acorn mast through a racoon ...
But my, this is telling, caps mine:
"The logo was designed by New York-based SS+K, WHICH HAS A LONGSTANDING PARTNERSHIP WITH OUR PARENT COMPANY, ADVANCE PUBLICATIONS."
(I'm guessing that outfit is "permeated" with Newhouse relatives?)
"Their work on the logo was informed by extensive consumer research in Ann Arbor, along with feedback from us and from people in the community."
Extensive consumer research — the same that brought the closure of an institution like the A2 News.
Yup, pretty sure there are no rambunctious, interesting, hat-on-backward design firms in stodgy, old-school Ann Arbor.
Better go with the New York chums, look what they did already for the Advance chain in Michigan!
Don't you guys recognize great marketing and branding when you see it? Readers identifying with the acorn, starting out small but becoming the mighty oak that will be Annarbor.com?
Yes, I'm being strictly sarcastic here. Booth/Newhouse shows its true colors once again -- there's no damn content (but its really going to be great when they get some, by golly!) yet they're so proud about their damn new logo. It's so hip, so trendy, so 21st century...
Based on past firsthand experience with one of the new management of Annarbor.com, I have little faith there will be anything like actual reporting in weeks ahead, but then it's not really about journalism, is it?
Floyd the Barbarian
A desperate editor named Tony once planted a tiny acorn.
He thought the acorn would grow into a mighty oak because his silly bosses paid a big New York firm lots of money for the acorn.
The acorn grew into a little oak sapling. Tony named the sapling annarbor.com.
But, alas, nobody fertilized it with good ideas, so it got oak wilt disease and died.
The end.
An acorn? Really? What about a piece of wadded up newspaper?
How about, "We could grow into a mighty oak someday. And we mean it!"
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