Update 2019

Big simplification. Is it the most hipster rose that you’ve ever seen? Not sure what the emphasis on the B is trying to say - especially since it isn’t followed through in the text. It’s generic and sparse enough to look ok when plastered over every possible surface of the University, but the giant circle ruins any sense of proportion to what I assume is meant to be a rose. The DIN look alike text is much more effective, when you can look at it for a second and not have yor eye drawn to that big off putting circle.

Update - name change

The University changed it’s name in September 2014, to ‘Leeds Beckett University’ - apparently because the ‘Metropolitan’ common among former Polytechnics is seen as a less appealing brand. I found a small case study by an agency that talked about the name change. The new logo use the same odd flower, with a few bits of tidying up, and goes for a much more utilitarian uppercase sans-serif, left aligned. It provides some continuity, though I can’t help thinking the dancing people in a logo are unlikely to survive the new branding for long.

Older review

Leeds Met logo is made of people.

If you look closely (and I hope you enjoyed the reference), you can see representations of the human figure in various states of motion, which combine to make up a rose. You can see this more clearly in the previous version of the logo, which perhaps suggests that the new version is aiming to emphasise yorkshire rose’s prominence rather than the more generic people. Oddly enough, I found that once I’ve seen the people in the logo, I now have a little trouble seeing it as a rose.

Set in all lower case and displayed around the rose, the text is condensed Helvetica Neue Condensed leading to a vaguely utilitarian feel. Not sure about the alignment the text - I feel that a strong vertical alignment might have provided a better contrast with the looser flower style.

Tagged : English , Lowercase , Sans-serif , Million + , Purple , Nature , Yorkshire and the Humber , The Northern Consortium (NCUK)

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