War On Logos #14: Design by Microsoft
Since the dawn of time it would seem that we are inundated by two “features” of Microsoft Office; WordArt and ClipArt.
WordArt is that wonderful feature which allows you to make a word look “stylish” and “colourful”. You can give it an assortment of shapes such as an arc, or triangular.
Whilst this sounds like a brilliant function for livening up your essays or documents, many people feel it looks tacky, unprofessional and has no place in the world of design. The very notion of using WordArt would most likely have you expelled from your design degree course at College, fired from your job at a design agency, and exiled from your country to some remote island in the Samoan region.
ClipArt for those of you not familiar is a delightful set of images supplied by Microsoft again to “brighten up your dull report. Additionally, you can download ClipArt from Microsoft in case the default selection doesn’t do anything for you or you can visit a vast array of websites for even more, some will even charge you for it.
Like WordArt, this is also a huge no-no in the design world, and worse still, it is often a complete copyright violation!
So, what we have for you today is a team who have a reasonably accepted name – not that of a trash firm or an imaginary fake animal, and they are still playing albeit in a much smaller league than previously.
This episode of war on logos is all about The Columbus Cottonmouths.
Instantly anyone not a fan, or perhaps those who are will see the immediate tackiness of the logo – and they will either laugh, or make that “urgh oh my god” impression on their face. I actually took time to show a few non hockey fans the logo, and they also agree – its cheap and nasty.
The most obvious thing to any viewer is the evident use of WordArt for the teams name. A striking yellow outline brings your attention the the light blue / dark blue gradient of the text in the shape dubbed by Microsoft as begin “Can Up”, and whilst the font is not recognisable to me, im pretty certain it is either a default font, or it was obtained off a free website because it “looked cool”.
A look beyond this awful WordArt font, will show up 2 further images, both which look like they came straight from ClipArt.
The hockey sticks, are recoloured to the same gradient as the text, and have additionally been given the same striking yellow outline.
Between the sticks is the head of a snake. This excessively detailed, electric blue coloured image overloads the logo and allows the design to make the jump from tacky to shit.
this snake is obviously infected as its tongue is a bright red colour, and worse still, the fangs are yellow! The mouth features a horrific black and white gradient, which would be acceptable had they not chosen to use a small colour pallet, leading to a very blocky looking effect.
The designer of this logo was either not paid, and thus voluntary; a player for a rival team; or possibly an 8 year old who has just got his/her first desktop and has just mastered paint.
In conclusion, this is one team with a snake team who should have a mongoose set upon them.