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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Haringey Council slammed for £65,000 re-branding amid austerity (today's H&H Broadway)

Is a re-branding exercise for the Local Authority justified, in these difficult times, when the Council is cutting here, there and everywhere?

Some of the cuts are to front-line services, such as the closing of adult day-care centres.

£65,000 isn't a huge amount in the context of the Council's overall budget, but I believe it's a symptom of wasteful, irresponsible spending on a larger scale. I suspect the cost of the full roll-out will be more than the £25,000 suggested.

The last vanity branding refresh was only nine years ago and I'm not convinced it was justified then, either.

CDC
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party

Tags for Forum Posts: PR, facelift, judgement, priorities, re-branding, refresh, vanity, waste, £65,000

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Does the £90k bill include the cost of replacing the 56 page "Haringey Councils Corporate Identity Specification Rules for use" booklet which was issued at the same time as the new logo in 2007?

I agree that the current logo is vile, but likewise think a re-brand is a total waste of money in this climate.  Given that it's Haringey's 50th birthday this year why don't we celebrate by going back to the old logo that served well for 43 years?

What did that look like?
If you scroll down the page a bit, I think this was it
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb-e-gla.html#hackney
And this is the coat of arms
http://www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Haringey

Agree Alex, though 'vile' is a little too strong. Ugly, amateur or unfortunate is I think better. When we're out of austerity, I reckon we should go back to the old, abandoned logo.

In Michael's links to the old logo and to the coat of arms show the reason for the flash or spark:

… They also allude to the first television transmission in Britain, which was from Alexandra Palace, which is within the borough.

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The shield simply shows a spark. This recalls that the first television broadcast was made from Alexandra Palace in the borough. The crest has a rising sun behind a cogwheel, appropriate for a progressive industrial community

The ghastly mess that appeared in 2007 was literally a distortion of the original logo. It was contemporaneous with the Labour Council's most earnest – even desperate – effort to give/sell Alexandra Palace to a former slum landlord (it resulting in multi-million pound losses).

I suspect that the Council – if not wanting to disassociate itself from Alexandra Palace – at least wanted to loosen the visual link with the studio history. The Council's favoured development partner wished to use the historic television studios for office space. However, a veil has been drawn over that period: don't expect an analysis in Haringey People magazine anytime soon!

Alan your quote above from Council PR reminded me of the script from Apple's ad aired during the Superbowl in the year made famous by George Orwell.

1984 was the year that saw the introduction of the Macintosh (then, it was aimed broadly at IBM):

Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.

We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths.

Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth.

We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause [one Borough?!].

Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

I've always wondered why local authorities and government departments worry about logos. A logo is surely there to make you want to buy the product or attract new customers. As we have no choice but to buy the products of local and national governments why bother? If they really feel they have to do this the font Arial 18 in bold is fine, free and easy to set up on staff computers and Haringey websites. You could even have it in a nice colour.

On this issue of who gets to design it, as the contract price is relatively low I'm sure it would not be found to be anti competitive to restrict the supply of the new design to an individual or company based in the borough. Or they could do what the Tyne and Wear council did when it was set up in 1974, run it as an open competition. The Tyne and Wear logo, which was used from 1974 to the late 1980s, was designed by my friend Susan Cramlington, who I sat next to in Maths class when we were both 14. As I recall she won a £10 WH Smith voucher.
Not quite as the logo does project an image to the 'rest of the world' what we are like in Haringey! Hence the need for a rebrand! The current logo does say " looney farty nothing electric running nowhere fast" ! ;-)

JJ, it's deja vu again!

Here was some of the reaction back in 2007, when money appeared to be flowing like water and some 18 months before the banking crisis, when most people were obliged to begin to tighten their belts:

Haringey Council to adopt new logo: "like it or lump it!"

I have not seen any new logo as it is top-secret and not something to involve the public. It is conceivable (indeed likely) that any new logo would be an improvement on the current one. However, if what the Council says about cuts is to be believed, this is something that should not be able to be afforded.

CDC
Counclllor
Liberal Democrat Party

I would like to start an e-petition on the Haringey Council web site to try to have this ridiculously money wasting idea more openly debated and possibly overturned.  True, it's not a significant amount of cash but in these difficult times, and given the history of the Borough particularly social services making national news, the amount is equivalent to a year's salary for one or two posts that could make a difference to people's lives.

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