Logos can be difficult. Brand identity is important. When someone thinks of Ohio State, there should be a singular image that comes to mind. University officials, apparently, want that to be the Block “O.”
The OSU Board of Trustees voted at its last meeting to update the academic logo, university seal and athletic logo.
The university seal was updated to have a Block “O” replace the rounded “O” in its center, a change that will largely go unnoticed.
The new academic logo sports an added Block “O” in front of the words “The Ohio State University.” That’s cool, but what is the academic logo even used for? Probably not too much, considering the seal is what is placed on diplomas and other academic awards. So we can chalk this change up as going unnoticed as well.
The athletic logo, on the other hand, is everywhere. It’s on T-shirts, hats and every other novelty and apparel item that can be sold to overzealous alumni and parents of freshmen. Let’s be honest – when most people think OSU, they think athletics.
The new athletic logo looks bad. The evident intention of the logo redesign was for the words “Ohio State” to appear bolder.
However, it looks like someone pulled the old logo up in Microsoft Paint and filled in the gaps in the block lettering. It makes viewers want to adjust their screen resolution.
In design, there is something called kerning, which refers to the spacing between letters in a word. It appears whoever designed the new athletic logo didn’t know about this. The letters are terribly close together and nearly impossible to read. Readability is a pretty important part of a logo.
Entire classes at OSU are taught on typography and this was the best the university could come up with? If the logo redesign was the first project of the semester to a class full of freshmen, they would have done a better job.
While I’d like to commend OSU on a good effort with trying something new, I really just can’t.