UK Parliament's stunning £50,000 logo rebrand ...

Drifter

Drifter

Member
I guess it's not what you know, it's who you knowo_O


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left 500 year old version - right new version

MEMBERS of Parliament have spent £50,000 on making small changes and rebranding their portcullis logo.
The consultancy SomeOne
https://someoneinlondon.com/
was hired to redesign the famous crown and portcullis logo to make it less ‘confusing and inconsistent’
The name ‘Houses of Parliament’ has been replaced by ‘UK Parliament’ and the design has changed from a black portcullis on a white background to a white portcullis on a darker background.
Officials said that previous versions of the logo, which is 500 years old, were being merged to make them all into one.
A Parliamentary Spokesperson said: "The visual identity of the UK Parliament has been reviewed and updated by the administrations of both houses because the current version does not work successfully on digital channels.
“The new version works with mobile responsive websites, and is more accessible and readable."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5842784/house-of-parliament-50k-logo/
 
It's outcomes like this that make design look easy and overpriced. I haven't looked at the comments on the Sun article but I can imagine it's a mix of people saying they could have done that for £50 and others suggesting other ways to spend that money. I assume the agency didn't just go straight to this option. It's logical to refresh the existing idea since it's been around for so long, a completely new concept would have likely drawn even more criticism and probably had a higher cost.

It's possible they had hundreds of variations on that portcullis before this version was picked. Yes £50,000 is a lot, but we don't know how much work was actually involved, and if this logo is used for a few hundred years then I guess that's money well spent.

From a designer's point of view, I think they've refined it well.
 
As a Designer of 30 years I well understand how branding works but £50k?

Seriously?

I'd comment more but I'm reading this really good book. ;)

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scotty said:
As a Designer of 30 years I well understand how branding works but £50k?
Click to expand...

Perhaps that was the budget given and they had to use it to secure future funding. Like how some company departments have to spend every penny they receive so they can argue they need that same amount next year, and the next year, and the next year.

That £50k could also have gone towards all the government travel expenses, and second houses, and buffets for the design committee meetings :giggle:
 
Changed title... UK forum, UK price...

All I will say is the images off of the company website that did the work says it all imo. It's great that they can charge that much, and I'm sure we'd all love to do it, but I have no idea why it cost the money it has. It honestly looks like the government picked the company because they 'looked like they do design' and the company did the absolute bare minimum to the brand because imo the design could have been done by most graduate designers for A LOT less... actually it kind of reminds of what you'd get if you ask a child at preschool to draw a picture of the logo if you stuck it in front.

It's such a fantastic rework that I didn't even notice the massive change of the rounded rectangles to circles on the new one....
 
I wonder if the price had anything to do with it being a London studio doing the work (though they also have offices in Sydney and Berlin)?

*Edit* Apparently they've also been rated the UK's no.1 design agency.
 
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Thing is, there's no way you could really change it that much without being placed into a huge wicker effigy and set alight by the media.

Looking at it on their site I quite like the hatched/engraved version of it and there's not forgetting the style guide.

... and pole dancers/white powder for the creative meetings.
 
£50K?

That's nothing. They spend 16 million on gov.uk. A huge chunk of that on consultants and another wodge on creating a new font. And only a fraction of the 300+ websites have been moved onto the new platform.
 
fisicx said:
That's nothing. They spend 16 million on gov.uk. A huge chunk of that on consultants and another wodge on creating a new font. And only a fraction of the 300+ websites have been moved onto the new platform.
Click to expand...

I often still struggle to find what I'm looking for on that site too.
 
Paul Murray said:
*Edit* Apparently they've also been rated the UK's no.1 design agency.
Click to expand...
By who, while I'm sure I'm not aware of every 'top' design agency in the country, hell I doubt I know most of the ones in my county, I'm pretty sure I would have heard of someone who is in the 'top 10' firms in the UK...

And like the others the 'modern' gov.uk website is a pita to navigate, never seems to have any information I actually need when I look for it on there and seems to just send me off to the old site whenever I do my accounts etc.
 
Levi said:
By who
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No idea, they have a pinned tweet in their Twitter feed linking to an article on their site about it, but the article appears to have been deleted. I tried to find the list in question, but gave up after the first 5 'top design agency' lists which all had different winners. I'll admit I'd actually never heard of the agency in question before the rebrand but I don't really keep up to date with London agencies.
 
scotty said:
I read this only this morning.

In the scene of things then £50k doesn't seem 'that' bad.
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This is what a lot of the newspapers and public don't understand/choose to ignore. It's not £50k for a logo, it's an entire refresh of the branding and communication, plus supporting material to go with it. "UK Government spend £50k on a logo that looks the same" is just intended to draw in readers and sensationalise the story. It's a clickbait title really.
 
And to save people some time searching online after looking at the wiki and seeing Transform Awards, Drum Awards (guessing it's that one) and Brand Impact Awards....

They're all awards where you pay to enter, which I personally disagree with.... and the only one I personally have any knowledge about is brand impact awards because it's linked to Computer Arts and Creative Bloq.
 
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