sullivan leh designs

What went wrong with the Sparty logo?

A few things hindered MSU from unveiling a slick new logo for their sports program come April 2010. The first was the leak. Once people see a beloved icon changed it’s only human nature to look at it through nostalgic eyes.

Instead, sending out hints and teasers, something to build up to the unveiling might have more effective. We only need to look at the build-up and geek prediction fest for the apple iPad announcement to see that. The same people would revile the new logo, but it would have been a done deal.

The second is the design itself. Generally, a logo is simplified in a revision; this one had details added to it. Had they simply sharpened up the old version the reaction may have been  a bit more positive.

I present to you a suggestion. Please know this is wildly unfair — I have no idea what constraints the designers had, what discussions with MSU had taken place, or how they approached it. I get to come at it with a clean slate which never happens in real life redesigns.

Assuming the old logo is based on a greek helmet, like these:

The top is clearly feathers. Which means the weight of a helmet is on the part that sits on the head, not the part in the air. The whole thing rests on top of the head not on the shoulders.

Left, current logo; right, rejected revision:

The problem with the rejected version is that it adds detail in the mask area and takes away detail from the part above the helmet. This adds weight to the top, making it resemble one of those fruit-baskets-on-the-head things. The detail added to the mask make it more confusing — does it rest on the shoulders? What is that over the eyes?

My suggestion is to simplify the new design and add back the airiness of the top piece:

Here’s what’s different between the rejected new design and my suggestion:

1. a – this area is a separation between helmet and feathers. it isn’t heavy. by making this skinnier and breaking it into pieces the visual weight is lessened; it also resembles the old version more but is simplified, making reproduction easier.
2. b – the top detail is simplified more like a real helmet.
3. c – the eyes should be more open;  they look more menacing on an angle but in reality would be hard to see out of.
4. d – simplified and removed the foot, which added unnecessary detail and is confusing.
5. e – the curve of the feathered area should be graceful and light; making this thinner and adjusting the curve does this.

I’m not a Spartan sports fan (full disclosure, I graduated from rival University of Michigan) but the redesign timing coincided with some thinking I’d been doing on logos and details. Every detail counts, and the fewer the better.

Other projects for this client:

More thoughts projects: picking on the peacock (or, usability fail at nbc.com) | sorry MSU, new logo is a fail

This post was written on a Monday in February 2010, when I probably should have been working on something else.