Telecom’s new logo
The Herald writes about Telecom’s new logo, and the debate about whether it is a snowflake, or a spark.
The best suggestion I have seen was on Twitter, where someone suggested it represents the small print in the contracts, which is normally denoted by an asterisk 
To be fair, I do prefer the new logo to the old one, which was very dull and corporate.
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Tags: Telecom
October 17th, 2009 at 10:06 am
To me it looks more like a word or a letter thats been scribbled out, just before the teacher could read it.
JC
October 17th, 2009 at 10:08 am
It looks like what I do with my pen when waiting on the phone to talk to someone at Telecom’s help desk.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Literally a scribble.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Does any one care, other than those contracted to produce it?
October 17th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Projectman – shareholders should care – publications, invoices etc can now be produced on a two colour printer.
This will further reduce invoicing costs, the last being when reply paid envelopes were done away with – customers now need to stick a stamp on when posting their cheques.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:40 am
peterwn – “posting their cheques”
What the heck are cheques?
Cheers, Chris W.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Looks like just another blot on the past Broadband service policy in NZ – quite appropriate for Telecom really.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Thers no doubt about it – our million dollar employees have come up with something here………….
I’m fucked if I know what it is though.
Looks like a childs scribble or a badly dropped birdshit.
It has all the indiactions of someone who doesnt know what to do, is uncertain, messy, or has the runs, etc. …… Sounds just like telecom.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:35 am
[DPF]To be fair, I do prefer the new logo to the old one, which was very dull and corporate
Well, sorry, but Telecom ARE a corporation, aren’t they, and why should a corporation be anything other than dull? Do you need to “feel the love” before you open your wallet, or are you buying rationally?
[DPF: They are in what is becoming a highly competitive industry. Brands do absolutely impact consumers]
October 17th, 2009 at 11:42 am
The Te Papa logo (a thumb print!) cost a small fortune. I wonder what Telecom paid the design firm for this?
October 17th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I have a diploma in graphic design, and I have to say it looks a bit lazy to me. A scribble with a color gradient applied to it.
Maybe it was done by the same people who designed the last Auckland City logo…
October 17th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Maybe the real logo is still at the designers office and this is a scribbled out draft?
October 17th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
[DPF: They are in what is becoming a highly competitive industry. Brands do absolutely impact consumers]
True, to a point. But only to a point. The best and most recognisable logos bring to mind the business, as you can see with this, it is so poorly executed it still needs to vave Telescum written below it.
Look at the brands that have logos that need nothing else, the Golden M, the crucifix, the Swastika. The instant you see the logo you know the brand behind it. Take away the the name and what does this logo say? A network cable is unplugged?
[DPF: I didn't sat it was a good logo! Having said that it is pretty distinctive and over time has a better chance of becoming memorable in its own right than their existing one]
October 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I agree with billy.
It looks like someone scribbled it on a napkin in the lunchroom.
Let’s go there now ~~~~~~~
PersonA: hey, what do you think about something like this for a logo (holds up napkin).
PersonB: yeh, not bad.
PA: I’d have to refine it down though – make it look more professional in Illustrator – make it look more like atom orbits
PB: no, I think it’s fine exactly as it is
PA: what, you mean like this scribble?
PB: yep, it’s perfect.
Last year, Pepsi got it’s logo redone. The advertising company that did it produced this document called ‘breathtaking’ for their rationale of the logo, comparing the new logo with the Earth’s magnetic field and orbits etc. Total bullshit.
October 17th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
It looks like someone was rapidly approaching a deadline.
October 17th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I thought the comment from the Vodafone spokesman was a bit childish. They really have turned from the funky challenger to a bunch of arrogant wankers.
October 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
The old one never really moved on from public service looking, no matter how they tried to facelift it.
At least the new one looks modern and more aligned to technology.
October 17th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
it’s just the meridian energy logo after a big night on the piss.
October 17th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Telecum.
October 17th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
OMG!! You are so right DPF, brands do impact customers. Now where is that
‘other’ brands phone number.
It is even worse than the amateur art on the phone books.
And for those of us with eyesight issues try getting rid of that annoying
‘lustre’ on the squiggle.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Telecom are finally getting their shit together.
their latest campaign, while stupid, was at least aimed at the right demographic.
remember 2 years ago we had “fast eddie” and a bunch of little kids trying to sell us the latest technology? wtf was that??
“ok, we need to sell this in to 30somethings, lets use little kids and make ads that appeal to grandparents”.
i switched the company back to telecom, i cant even descibe how much better the service is. vodafone was so shite, i couldnt even use my mobile as a phone anymore. i picked up a blackberry from telecom 3 weeks ago, i havent had one call drop out yet!!! im a happy Dime.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Some advertising by companies is utter shite. I can’t stand that ‘macarena’ one that an airline is using on TV now. It looks so budget and naff.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Interesting view in the Telecommunication Review Top 40 in regards to Russel Stanners and Vodafone.
If you hadn’t have known who they were bagging you would have thought it was about Telecom under Gatting.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
It’s optical fibre cable with light symbolising the light that travels within the fibres carrying data. Fibre-optic is so fine it would be damned hard to incorporate in a logo. Good on Telecom for trying, but it’s slightly ironic given that Telecom is squeezing the last bits and bytes out of its copper network and is one of the country’s two big wireless internet players. Still Telecom does have far more fibre laid than any other NZ organisation.
October 17th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Its the magpie’s only brain cell wizzing around looking for company
October 17th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Oh it’s faaaaaaabuloussss!, what a thuper dessign, it’s just sthoooo progrethsive!
October 17th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Fletch says:
What, you’re surely not suggesting that the corporate name followed by an asterisk is at all derivative, hackneyed, overdone, unimaginative or just plain stolen are you?!
[And that doesn't even cover logos that look like snowflakes and scribbles. I hope Telecom got this for the price of a local call].
October 17th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Tail painted the cows this morning, looks like my handy work on a cow that won’t stand still.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Found this on a site of some logo “don’ts” –
Exactly.
If a customer were to see that Telecom logo for the first time without the name, what does it say to them about the company and what it does? Nothing. It could be for anything.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Do you have Red Energy in New Zealand?
The logo is very similar: http://www.redenergy.com.au/
There are a few others similar I have seen…
October 17th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
No, we don’t have red energy, we had an election and the reds lost
October 18th, 2009 at 6:49 am
As someone has pointed out elsewhere, it bears a striking resemblance to Kurt Vonnegut’s asshole scribbles:
http://vonnegutsasterisk.blogspot.com/
October 18th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Its a star according to Telecom
I idea is that anyone could draw it. thats why its like it is. Hope this helped
October 18th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Seriously, I hope it came as the result of a competition for 6 year olds wearing blindfolds and forced to smoke weed. Please don’t tell me some fuckwit “marketing” company got paid tens of thousands of dollars to produce this, please. *not holding breath*
October 19th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Could be worse.
They could’ve had a competition to rename an old favourite (“Vegemite”), selected a new trendy and totally modern name that will definitely resonate with today’s discerning buyers of yeast extract (“iSnack 2.0″) … and gotten totally spanked.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
It looks like a dogs anus…In fact, that may be intentional!!
February 18th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
The logo was “stolen” from a boardroom meeting where somebody had written an asterisk on a whiteboard.
Taken to a design firm and made into a shite logo.
“What we are saying here to people is that this is all about you – it is literally whatever you want it to be. This is about self expression,” said Telecom director of brand and marketing Craig Herbison.
So basically it’s an asterisk and they are trying to make it into something it is not.
At the end of the day, it is their logo and it’s now all over the country. As far as branding goes it works, but as a design it fails.
Also Telcoms previous logo was done by a design student. The logo was the taken to a designer.
I sense a pattern emerging here.