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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

New brand identity strategy for Haringey

"I am in"

Discuss.

CDC
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party

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update to mark the 'soft launch' (click to enlarge):—

The £20,000 film, The Haringey Story

Tags for Forum Posts: I am in, Local Government, brand strategy, folly, identity, nonsense, vanity, waste of money

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I'm not clear Shem,  what you are suggesting. I believe in civic pride but happen to think that comes from good libraries, good parks, clean streets,  and municipal services provided to a high standard.  This expenditure reveals a different set of priorities. The funding is being justified as a one-off, but that isn't good enough.  The social infrastructure supporting vulnerable adults, young children and their families is being cut to ribbons.

Underspends from budgets should be going to fund these services where they can.  As I said, this rebranding tells us a lot about those in charge of this borough.

Zena Brabazon

I believe in civic pride but happen to think that comes from good libraries, good parks, clean streets,  and municipal services provided to a high standard.

 So when would you say that Haringey last had all of the above Zena?


◻︎ 2010?
◻︎ 2000?
◻︎ 1990?
◻︎ 1980?
◻︎ 1970?

I think you'd have to go a very long way back to be able to tick all boxes..

All of what you say is true Zena, and all of those things are important. But when the Victorians where building those libraries and parks, poor children where dying from diphtheria and scarlet fever, but it was felt that by educating and making people literate they would stand a better chance of escaping poverty and it's associated illness. In the 1930's the last time there was overwhelming civic pride in the borough, It was because of the arrival of the tube and a civic building programme that changed North London forever, there wasn't even a National Health Service at the time. Yes, the things you defend are important, but do not fall into the age old trap of denigrating design, architecture and art as being a waste of money. Of course no one would vote for a new logo or video... Just as so many people were sniffy about the regeneration of Green Lanes. But when I walk down it on a Saturday the new shop fronts make me smile and feel good about the area, and I'm not the only one... And making people feel good about where they live should never, be underestimated. Clive and his petty bunch of cronies 'Know the cost of everything and the value of nothing'. Which is why I'm saying you should think again about what has been talked about here and why it's not about the logo. It's about whether you're prepared to help your community, maybe take up some of the slack that these Tory cuts are creating by helping each other, not sniping from the sidelines trying to score political points like Clive. This borough was once prosperous and as you say clean, with good parks, and libraries... It can be again, if you want it to be. It'll never happen with the Clive's of this world in charge because they'll have a pop at everything from the Olympics ('colossal waste of money') to not having council generating revenue events in Finsbury Park, (because of the litter and parking problems)... Nothing would ever happen or get done. I hope you see that.

Clive and his petty bunch of cronies 'Know the cost of everything and the value of nothing'.

Well, the Evening Standard editorial on the matter (suggests that, in respect of the (fashionable-childish) logo, residents might wonder whether their story has been overpriced but undersold.

Some things – more deserving – will not happen or get done, as a result of the spend on this vanity project. I hope you see that.

Sadly Clive all I can see is a man with an agenda and a hatred of any Labour initiative at the council. (Maybe you'd prefer a Tory one).
Yes, of course, I would have preferred it if £86 thousand pounds had been spent on renovating the BBC studios at Ally Pally, or used to preserve the victorian buildings at St Ann's Hospital, maybe even on some of the services that Zena is worried about. But you know far better than me, that 86 thousand pounds won’t even cover the cost of removing the asbestos from the average sized scout hut. They spent the money Clive, get over it. What they’ve done is not great (I think we can all agree on that), but it’s not a crime against design or an affront to the eyes, and maybe just maybe it might change some of the more jaundiced views of Haringey. I should at this point say for the record, I have no connection with the council and I have never voted for a labour councillor in the 20 years I’ve lived here, (I had the misfortune to move in next to one, and what a supercilious, smug, git he was, in fact I used to favour the Lib Dems, but you’re changing that by the minute). So I say to you again Clive, get off your soapbox and see the ‘I am in’ campaign for what it is, a flawed but honest attempt to try and improve things, and that needs to be acknowledged.

"....maybe just maybe it might change some of the more jaundiced views of Haringey."

"...a flawed but honest attempt to try and improve things, and that needs to be acknowledged."

The problem is we get so much of this flawed stuff and the dishonesty and mediocre compromises are doing precisely what the new logo purports to try and reduce.

It is depressing such wasted doportunities. we need much more than this and it is possible!

PS: I don't support the Lib Dems and certainly do not support the Haringey Labour kabal nor the waste-of-time MP we have been burdened with.

Shem - I agree with you about the importance of design, architecture and art in brightening our daily lives, and do believe that we should spend money on beautifying our environment as well as on mundane services but,  as a design industry professional, maybe you could help me here.

How does the new logo meet the stated objectives -

" improve the profile and image of the council with residents and key stakeholders

 ensure the identity reflects our vision for the borough as a place of true potential and ambition

 be a catalyst for a wider programme of culture change

 help with the recruitment and retention of staff by creating a stronger sense of identity for the council "

To me, the logo just says " This truck " ( for example ) " is working for Haringey, a borough in London "

A cynic might think that the shaky lettering is an apt reflection of the competence of the Council and might read into the choice of red that it is a Labour-dominated council, but there my imagination stops.

Can you, as a design industry professional, explain the symbolism that reflects our vision for the borough as a place of true potential and ambition ?

Well now that I've seen it for real, on the side of a Veolia truck, I'm starting to warm to the new logo. I do think though that the questions John has raised are the important ones. Does it actually fit the brief and was it needed?
On a seperate issue I think there is a danger in having a somewhat rosey view of the past. I arrived in London in 1978 and in Haringay, first in Manor House in 1983, then Tottenham in 1984 and finally Harringay in 1985. It was dirty, rubbish was strewn over every pavement and services were largely terrible. This was London as a whole, Haringey included. Thinking of a walk down Green Lanes then and now, the experience is completely different and better.
Yes, maybe the word on the logo should been spelt with 2 R's.

In 2002 Wiloughby Rd (west side of Duckett's Common) was regularly a dumping ground for unwanted motor vehicles.

I like the treatment of the new logo when shown just as an 'h' as it's used on Twitter. That's a genuinely nice piece of design so I hope they use it elsewhere

THE jagged forms behind the H are fashionable at the moment. For me, they suggest broken or falling structures (buildings to come down in Tottenham?). Or a blocky, highly stylised bat.

These jaunty, playful angles have been popularised by architect Daniel Libeskind.

Nearest relevant example: London Metropolitan University (see Alan Stanton's photo of the Orion building).

Currently, this style is IN vogue.

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