“A town has spent £5,000 on a new logo (left) which critics said resembles a child’s crayon ‘Scribble’.

The ‘visual expression’, a three-dimensional image of multicoloured circles representing the different aspects of Burnley, is aimed at revamping its image. The council paid an extra £400 to trademark the logo – protecting the design from other towns which were keen to use it, councillors said.

The logo was produced by Burnley Vision Board after it secured a £300,000 grant from the North West Development Agency. The Money will be used to rebrand the Lancashire town. Critics said the logo resembled ‘a deformed insect’ while some residents claimed that a toddler could have produced the same design.”

I was just wondering what aspects of Burnley the logo represented? The one way system, car lights moving around the town at night, a traffic study or the decision making process in the councils procurement department! One thing it certainly doesn’t represent, is any clear sign that the council is spending it’s money wisely. And the Council leader went on to say : “I think it’s a brave choice but I haven’t heard anyone with a bad word to say about it.” – Did he tell them the price I wonder?

It’s all very well being critical but I suppose I should put in some comment about, in my eyes, what the logo lacks. A part from the visual idea that is missing it says absolutely nothing to me about Burnley, it’s proximity to the Peninnes, the history, the countryside, the beautiful buildings – there I’ve written the new brief already!

The logo in question is the one with the green and blue tree (top left).

Political identities are always interesting, how do you convey or capture all that a political party stands for in one image? It’s a big challenge for any designer, but if the budget is for £20,000 it should be more than possible; plenty of money there for research, more research, scribbles, more scribbles,  a big idea or two, multiple drafts, multiple adaptations and a shiney final execution. But what do we see – a logo of little originality, bland and lacking any real depth of visual message – lets face it, it’s not a banner we are all going to march behind, it’s not a logo that is saying to me anything about what this party stands for. A green tree? There’s another party that the logo might be better suited to! I think it’s definitley time for a change David – it’s your logo.