Millions were cut into letters: everyone criticizes the new logo of St. Petersburg

The new logo of St. Petersburg has been criticized by users of social networks and specialists, some of them suggest returning the old logo created by Artemy Lebedev for 1 ruble.
19.11.2019
Forbes
Origin source
On Thursday, St. Petersburg authorities introduced a new “meta-brand” of the city. The logo created within its framework is a “turquoise sun” - a circle with the inscription “St. Petersburg”, the font of which should remind of drawbridges, the authors of the project explained at the presentation (in the photo there is a brand presentation from the blog of the Committee for Tourism Development of St. Petersburg at vk.com).

Brand for 7 million rubles

The Committee on Tourism Development of St. Petersburg announced a competition for the development of the city’s brand in September last year. Authorities allocated more than 7 million rubles to the winning agency SPN Communication for its development. According to the director general of the agency Andrei Barannikov, work on the visual part took only 10% of the time. “The remaining 90% were involved in the development of documents,” the Petersburg Diary quoted him. An official statement from the St. Petersburg administration also emphasized that “visual solution and creating a logo” is only 10% of the work done by the agency.

This logo should change the logo created in 2014 under a contract between the city government and Art. Lebedev Studio, and its cost was 1 ruble. In 2016, the advertising committee “Boris Grigoriev and Partners” complained to the Committee on Tourism. The Antimonopoly Service considered that the authorities created discriminatory conditions for market participants, as they entered into a contract without an open tender. Last August, the Supreme Court banned the use of the Lebedev logo.

The designer, after making a court decision, allowed everyone to use the logo. However, he stated that SPN Communication borrowed his ideas. “The new logo uses the turquoise color we proposed, the idea of ​​drawbridges in letters and a three-line wrap,” Lebedev wrote in his Telegram channel.

“Skull of a sheep” and “I grew up in ice”

Social networks reacted to the new logo of St. Petersburg with parodies - users adapted the names of other cities to the agency’s concept.

Alexander Nevzorov
✔
@NevzorovAG
Such a St. Petersburg logo would be appropriate only if Boria Moiseev were the governor of the city. And in general, the role of the blue sun of the country of St. Petersburg is categorically not suitable. https://twitter.com/fake_midrf/status/1195505918433284096 ...

Honey Roissy
@Fake_MIDRF
Everyone remembers the new symbol of St. Petersburg - the "turquoise sun"? So, this topic went to the people:

In particular, they offered the options “P Ad Olsk”, “I grew up in ice” and “Sam Ara”.

Some asked for work of 7 million rubles.
 
“Shame on the Northern Capital”

We discussed the logo not only in social networks. Many experts in the field of culture and art, as well as politics, spoke about him. So, the artist and member of the Forbes 30 to 30 list, Pokras Lampas, told Fontanka that the logo was “terrible”. “I believe that this is unacceptable for the city - both in terms of artistic value, and in terms of the work of the designer, and in terms of relevance. Work loses to absolutely all branding of modern cities in general, ”he told the publication. The artist also noted that he considers Lebedev’s version “a much stronger statement.”

“The trouble is that these brands are born - on the run. It’s necessary to think seriously. What I showed was not so impressive. I would like to see something recognizable in the city. I don’t want to offend those who did it, but I would like to see the symbols of St. Petersburg architecture - this is what Petersburg is recognizable for, ”Director of the Russian Museum Vladimir Gusev told Fontanka.

Blogger and urbanist Ilya Varlamov told piter.tv that the new logo is “solid.” “But the old one was somehow nicer. I evaluate the logo solely on its own: I want to wear a shirt with such a logo or not. With this I still do not understand, maybe I'm not used to it yet. <...> There was a good logo, why is this all? The new one is not bad, but why? ”He said.

Former vice-governor of St. Petersburg Igor Albin wrote that he was “ashamed of the cultural capital”. TV presenter Ivan Urgant suggested that the creators "saved on a hyphen."

The director of Proname brand consultancy, which also tried to win a logo design tender, criticized the final project, as well as the idea with drawbridges: “There are a lot of trends, but we need a concept that combines history and modern development <...> People see the inscription bridges only when prompted. I would like encrypted characters to be read on the fly. ”

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