How not to come up with a logo

This is a prehistoric zombie elephant who feels blue because he was put in jail for soliciting gay sex from an undercover cop. ;)

Seriously, I agree. This doesn't work at all.

It really is one of the most pathetic graphic representations in years for any political party. It's hard work for "design by committee" to screw up so royally.

Jeff Fisher
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I totally agree that this is a horrible logo, but I think you missed the point with the "racing stripe/prison bars" and "dead eyes". I think their intention was to show the elephant wrapped in our flag... you know, stars and stripes. While the execution was terrible, it seemed pretty obvious what the intent was.

paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog

It's true that there should be more red. Although I think that too much red would have also been a poor choice, but the Republican Party is known as the RED party.

The "racing stripe/prison bars" are obviously supposed to be emblematic of the Flag, but it does a terrible job of that. It dirties up the logo and does indeed look like some kind of prison bars.

As for the position, I would say the biggest problem has nothing to do with the idea of sex, but has to do with aggression. Although elephants don't do this when aggressive, this position makes the logo look very confrontational and aggressive. Of course, being the NRA supported party that doesn't surprise me too much.

I don't understand the thinking behind that star. Definitely makes the elephant look dead.

Tusks like that, although rare, are tusks found on elephants. Although, as I mentioned before, this just adds to the aggressiveness of the logo.

I'm not a republican, but if I was, I would be ashamed of this logo. So poorly planed and created.

It's standing on its hind legs. It has the rug on its back and stars in its eyes. Doesn't say much about the convention, except if it's going to be in a big tent!

"a star representing the eye in a drawing has OFTEN represented the idea that the person/animal is dead."

I can't think of (or find) a single instance where stars have ever been used to illustrate death. Are you sure you're not thinking of the letter X? The X symbol (sometimes in a circle) is the only one I've ever seen over the eyes on drawings to illustrate death.

I might be wrong, but if I'm not... the lesson would be, do your research before you critique a logo, and then do it again before you release that to the public. ;)

paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog

Gee, I wonder if they hired a designer for this? Probably not. :)

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Dude, everyone knows all the best creative types are Demmy-crats! ;)

The elephant MIGHT have worked if (as the original poster suggested) the color was red AND (my own suggestion) it had been made the main focus of the design, not uglified in that awful plain white circle with the Helvetica Neue 55 text. Ecch.

While news stations tend to separate the country into "blue states" and "red states", both sides rely heavily on red, white and blue. Though I agree this is a miss for other reasons mentioned by archmedia. Maybe both sides will realize past efforts have been incredibly boring, relying on stars, stripes and their respective mascots. It's like they're so afraid to do anything different, afraid that it may be perceived as unpatriotic. It's become cliche. It's time for something new all around, time to make a statement, Republicans and Democrats.

Another humorous, and pretty biased review of this same logo can be found at Brand New

Feel free to digg it:
http://digg.com/design/How_NOT_to_come_up_with_a_logo

It so obvious that this was designed by committee ...and that always works out in the end, right?

And maybe the elephant isn't standing on it's hind legs but this is the bird eye view of a dead elephant lying on its side - you did mention the starry eyes. ;)

you got me when you first pointed out the color blue.

we posted a video with stefan sagmeister last spring where he goes off on the design mediocrity of both parties. he basically says that if these were 'real' clients, the designers would be fired.

if interested, the video's here: http://www.scribemedia.org/2007/04/02/wdrw-sagmeister/

and runs about 15 minutes.

This the party of sexual scandals, which ironically some of them are going to prison, maybe that explains the stripes.

Yeah, not politically charged at all *rolls eyes*

"Since when does the republican mascot of an elephant have tusks like a mammoth?" You are absolutely right and having the error! SY0-201