Before I could get to write my review of the Loughborough logo I chanced up the ongoing saga of their rebrand, subsequent pause and new proposal.

The soon to be old logo is an interesting geometric take on the shield motif that cleverly incorporates an ‘L’ as negative space. Looking older than it’s 1996 creation it feels like a 60s plate-glass university logo. No bad thing to my mind, and it clearly engendered some loyalty at the University.

The logo that generated all the fuss

The new identity is pretty bold, though all those rounded corners make for an even medicated feel. Some contrast, some light and shade in feel would have been my suggestion.(Far kinder than some of those on social media.)

This article over on creative pool has a good round up of how things played out. Some interesting background on the petition that was organised also makes some very good points about the old and new designs - particularly the pretty odd statement from loughborough

The 1996 logo together with its serif font, fixed colours and oblong shape doesn’t work well online.

Also on that page is the proposal for a new crest based logo (now in use).

Ironically, the combination of the shield/crest in the proposal and the new typeface (A little DIN-esque ) works well, even if the detail in the shield is tricky to render. I like the way that Durham managed their shield and let the white bleed out.

Tagged : East Midlands , Shield , Purple , M5 Universities , Crest , Abstract , Sans-serif

Read the Wikipedia entry Visit website