Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Have you heard the GOOD NEWS about Haringey branding?
Since I am sure that Mr. Stanton would be supremely indifferent to a call for God to bless him, I don’t suppose I would be going against my principles to issue such a plea, because he has bequeathed to me nearly half an hour of good solid fun in his request to Haringey for details of the ‘rebranding’ which was recommended last October.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/haringey_new_logo_rebranding...
As you will see, these were furnished to him by the "feedback review officer", an employment category which in itself conjurs up images of what you might be forced to appraise on the pavement outside a kebab joint on a Saturday night.
Anyway, I scraped through the bigger bits and discovered that Haringey is not only "edgy" but it is not in fact a place. According to the Brand Guidelines is is an Attitude. So, not a borough, then. We are the Attitude of Haringey. According to the Collins Dictionary, an attitude is at best a physical orientation and at worst a hostile manner. Judging by the colour of the letterheads and signage it is also permanently in a red mist. From ID cards to care homes, all is red—including the cards that Councillors have to hand to their parishoners. Even the LibDems have to hand out red cards to people, so whatever it is and whoever hands it to you: STOP THAT AT ONCE!
Apart from the graphics, there are also instructions about language. Employees of the Attitude of Haringey are urged to “create energy with short sentences” rather than being “staid, stuffy or formal” (note the use of three words meaning the same thing, right after the request for brevity) and to write as if talking to a good friend. Oh us cuddly folk at Haringey Attitude. We are just so ….LOVABLE.
But the best is probably in the letter heads.
There are two versions for use with the residents, customers …um… Good Friends. The letterheads come in “good news” and “bad news”. Surprisingly, someone has realised that the bouncing buffoonery that now spells out the name of our borough in a font which looks as if a serial killer has scrawled it on the wall in blood, might not be the best thing to put on the top of a letter telling your dying grannie that she is about to be locked out of her flat by Haringey Social Services. I am impressed by their sensitivity. Good news letters, btw, have the bouncing bloodstain at the top of the page, while the bad news ones have “Haringey" in black and at the bottom of the page, so as not to associate our edgy Attitude of Haringey with anything negative.
Since the Attitude now has double designs of stationery, instead of just the one, this means double the number of trees turned into pulp to communicate council wafflings. Oh, and all of us Council Tax payers have double the expense, of course, Which theme should they use to give us *that* information?
That, by the way is not the end of it because there is special stationery for use only within the Council—good news, bad news and something called a “partner” letterhead which has its own category. All of these add to the different stacks of stationery to be printed and wasted but by this time I have lost count of the multiples. You’ll have to work out the trees for yourselves.
Sod the trees, though. It’s the council workers I feel sorry for. Can you imagine the nervous stress of trying to decide in which category they should form their communications? Can you imagine the discussions over every letter to determine whether it qualifies as good news or bad news?
Even with committee discussions about the right stationery dragging on into the small hours, there will still be problems because any fool knows that good and bad news is often a matter of opinion. The continued printing of "Haringey People", for instance: good or bad? A ten-day rock festival in Finsbury Park: good (wow! free music for over a week!) or bad: (how the hell do I get the kids to sleep)? Permission for your neighbours to build a huge and looming loft extension: bad (there goes the light) or good (great! that means I’ll get permission for my basement swimming pool)?
Perhaps some sort of mnemonic would be useful. As they (almost) recite in Full Metal Jacket — “this is for sober-speak and this is for farces, this is for Kober’s clique and — “ ….oh shucks, I can’t think of a rhyme for the rest of it.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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SO, this is the background to the new logo.
Some news will obviously be Good and other news, obviously Bad. However, there'll be a lot of things that are shades of grey. Two points spring to mind: who decides which way a piece of news falls and should there be a third letterhead for a kind of purgatory or just plain News (neither good nor bad).
In this new corporate world in which we live, obviously there's an incentive to minimise Bad News and maximise Good News (more info here).
Presumably, part of the job of the big PR department will be to try to adapt any Bad news candidates into partial- or potential-Good news. Or am I too cynical?
C D Carter
Haringey Council London Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Have a look at Libdem Merton's branding guidelines and then you can decide if you're being cynical. I should warn you it includes logos on staff uniforms.
http://www.merton.gov.uk/merton_visual_id_july_2014-mb1forweb.pdf
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And Conservative Wandworth make organisations who are lucky enough to get a grant from them use their branding, but only after their comms people have seen it and agreed it of course.
http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/10857/using_gran...
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YES corporate branding is fashionable. But surely you'd agree that LBH sets the pace in how far it goes beyond mere font, size and Pantone colour?!
Thanks for the warning on uniforms. I don't have anything against uniforms. I think Librarian uniforms are silly, expensive and unnecessary. Fortunately, LBH has recently made a U-turn on Uniforms, saving us tens of thousands of pounds.
I see the Borough's outdoor signage is now divided into:
(a) Considerate
(b) Playful
It's nice work if you can get it. In America, they sometimes have signs alongside infrastructure projects saying "Your tax dollars at work". Here, it's more a case of Your tax pounds mucking about and having a laugh.
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No, Haringey are somewhat lagging behind. What they are doing now is only what others have already done
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How much should we be prepared to pay for the assertion that Haringey is … A seat on the bus? (amongst other things; Background, page three)
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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It's amazing isn't it, Lydia and Clive? Apotheosis of the pretentious; culmination of the clowning.
In normal no-expense-spared, spendthrift times it might even be an addition to the joys and delights of everyone in the borough. Or at least those inside the Dear Leader's inner circle. Plus her fanclub of courtiers; sycophants; place-people; payroll vote; and general hangers-on.
But as we all know, these are times of brutal cuts where only the developers, a football club, starchitects and hipster businesses run free. So it's more likely to add to the disgust and anger of all those who can see that wasting money on this piffling Jogoe Logo tomfoolery is not just absurd but an obscenity.
"Send in the clowns. Don't bother they're here."
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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Alan, I am appalled by this, but hardly surprised. As you know, I object to the Labour Party's persistent control of Haringey not so much because I don't like the core ideals but because it has been in power for so long, it has been corrupted by custom. It was in that spirit that I ran for Harringay in the last local election. I am afraid you are part of the problem because despite your misgivings about the party cabinet you still campaigned (as did many) for yet another Labour councillor. As I warned in my electioneering--any Labour councillor, however principled, however socially concerned, would end up being forced to rubber-stamp the mad delusions of the Cabinet and that is indeed what has happened. We need a proper opposition in Haringey and that will come about only when people like you decide to vote elsewhere occasionally. Our argument has nothing to do with socialism; it has to do with monopolies.
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I am voting elsewhere, Lydia. And you are perfectly correct to criticise me.
I'm ashamed to say that I once volunteered in Seven Sisters to help elect Cllr JoeGo Logo. I've knocked on doors and delivered leaflets in wards which are now represented by Progress Party councillors on behalf of the Muswell Hill Colonial Administration. Though to be fair, this Party has only been in complete power in Haringey for about five years. The destructive effects of its regime have got steadily worse.
But I'm now far more discriminating and will be voting and campaigning for actual Labour candidates.
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"wards which are now represented by Progress Party councillors..."
Thanks for the link, I had not seen this before. Not being a professional politician, I did not even know of the existence of this Labour subset. I am most puzzled that their colour is not red but UKIP purple.
btw, that's another thing about Labour I don't like -- it's made up of so many mini-parties. When Conservatives or LibDems decide their party isn't radical enough, they leave and form other parties. They don't start new parties within the old one.
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Progress is rather like The Bow Group in the Conservative Party. Both try to influence party policy and to get "their" people into positions of influence
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