Artistic Failure

[At the time of this writing, I was a senior at University of Illinois Laboratory High School.]

About a year ago, our fair school had a bit of a graphic design change. The classic interlocked "UH" logo was replaced with this... thing:

The Identity Standards page explains the following:

This mark reflects the "Uni" brand and serves as Uni's universal logo to be used on all publications. While the official name of the school is used formally, "Uni" serves as the brand identity. The mark's typeface is Adobe Garamond Pro, the University of Illinois' official typeface.

For comparison, here is the previous logo:

This varsity mark represents Uni's athletic brand. The mark is reserved for use on official apparel, team uniforms, athletic department equipment, and athletic department publications.

This mark does not represent Uni's main brand identity.

There are only two reasons I can think of for why this change was made by the advancement office.

1. So that the nickname "Uni" could be formalized and made more recognized on official media, hence the repeated usage of the term "brand identity."
2. To match official University logos and materials.

By any measure of graphic design, the new logo is a disaster, both artistically and aesthetically. One does not simply make a logo by typing text in a font. If I can open up my word processor and recreate your logo in five seconds, you have failed.

Bad.

As this image shows, the logo has zero creativity. Beyond no effort being put into actually constructing it, it also defies guidelines of what a logo should be. It is neither detailed nor simple, but rather in the uncanny valley of having an intricate font outline but not much more than that. In fact, the design of the font itself works against the logo.

For example, look closely at the top-left corner of the 'n'. Garamond was designed to be used for text at small sizes. The serif pattern of the letters was not designed for viewing at the scales necessary for a logo.

This logo is soulless. It is far too simplistic.

In constructive terms, I doubt there was sufficient rationale to make this change in the first place. The quickest solution would be to revert to the UH immediately. If the logo must contain the name "Uni", even though "Uni High" sounds more down-to-earth, then the students and the Fine Arts department should be tapped for input on designing a logo that adheres to graphic design standards.

This space used to have the UH.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy wiping my feet on the mats showcasing this logo when I enter and exit the school building.