As an image it misses the mark

A UNIVERSITY of Tasmania marketing lecturer says criticism of the much maligned new Hobart City Council logo is justified.

The logo was released by the council earlier this week and resulted in a social media storm, with some ratepayers daubing it “amateurish” and comparing it to a Band Aid.

Dr Kim Lehman, who studied all of Tasmania’s local government logos as part of a research project in 2007, said while the logo was “very nicely designed’’ it was too generic and did not say anything about the place or the council.

“It may be appropriate for a business entity like Aurora but for the Hobart City Council’s purpose it is a wasted opportunity to communicate,’’ he said. Dr Lehman said a logo was meant to be an immediately understandable shorthand statement.

“But when you ask what this logo immediately says about Hobart the answer is nothing,’’ Dr Lehman said.

“It doesn’t speak and it doesn’t fulfil what should be its intended function of providing a brief visual representation and that is particularly important in the local government sector where budgets for advertising and promotion can be restrictive meaning logos play a greater role in creating a sense of identity.’’

While many critics of the new logo praised the Hobart City Council’s existing logo Dr Lehman is not a fan of it either.

“It has way too many things in it,’’ he said. “A good logo hones in on the core of the brand – it focuses on a central idea that says visually what Hobart is about.’’

Dr Lehman said during his 2007 research project he had discovered some local government logos, like the Meander Valley and Southern Midlands councils, were very good while others were very badly designed.

“Many of the logos had elements in them that made you wonder why they were there. For example, two councils had a generic bird shape in their logo and [others] had an image of the sun or its rays which did not add anything to the council’s brand statement.’’

Dr Lehman said more than 40 per cent of Tasmanian local government logos incorporated local landmarks or features.

“For local government organisations I think it is important to have a point of geographical significance in the logo because it visually distinguishes them from other local government areas.’’

He said the Meander Valley Council’s logo was an example of very good branding because it said something about the place through the use of a geographical feature, the tag line “working together’’ and the colours used.

“The Southern Midlands Council’s logo also works be- cause it gives people a feeling for the landscape and depicts a sense of place.’’

Many of the residents who commented on social media complained about the use of three different fonts for the words City of Hobart.

“At the moment mixing fonts is a fashion in graphic design so it is not a flaw, but the downside is that it will go out of fashion again,” Dr Lehman said. He said at the end of the day the most important consideration for a logo was whether the stakeholders, in this case Hobart ratepayers, felt it represented them.

“The people of Hobart have to own it and feel it communicates something about their city.’’

Simon Jarosz, the creative strategy director of Sydney’s Toast Creative who specialises in branding and design, said responses like Hobart’s this week were a common problem when communities and stakeholders weren’t engaged as part of the process.

“Regardless of design execution the reality is the big “H” proposed by the Hobart City Council isn’t reflective of this community so it was destined to be rejected as a logo mark,’’ Mr Jarosz said.

“Stakeholder involvement is a crucial part of the branding process.’’

Mr Jarosz said branding a community or organisation required a completely different approach from the mainstream corporate model.

“The social implications and psychology have to be the primary focus and the process should be a positive, exciting time for the stakeholders and the community.’’

The Mercury contacted the graphic designer behind the logo, Damien Scott of Hobart’s Great Scott Designs, who said he had been asked by the Hobart City Council to refer any media enquiries to them.