New Wis. identity 7th worst?

Mike Paulus |

The blog Brand New, which claims it offers you “opinions on corporate and brand identity work,” has posted their picks for the best and worst identities of 2009. And guess who’s sitting at number 7 in the WORST roster? Yep, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism’s $50,000 identity makeover – focusing on the logo so much of Wisconsin loves to hate. They say:

  • Poor choices in color and typography and even poorer decisions in configuration and scale make this one of the strangest logos of the year. Live like you mean it, but design like you mean it too.

Also on the list: Yale University Press, Kraft, MSN, Bing, and the City of Philadelphia. Good (bad?) company. Brand New talked about our new identity back in March, giving it a negative, though less harsh-ish review. Among other things, they point out that “Some people are offended that it was a male doing the cartwheel, ostensibly emasculating the entire Wisconsin's female population.” I never thought about that. But then again, I’m just a dude from Wisconsin.

P.S. We heard about this news over at As Seen in WI.com, a blog both handsome and charming.