Not a Fan of the Redesigned Newark Museum Logo

Been meaning to talk about this for a while. In Newark, New Jersey there is a museum (The Newark Museum) that has been around for 100 years. I remember going to the museum when I was a kid and I have continued visiting it as an adult. I have a soft spot for the museum - It's not the biggest museum and it's certainly not the flashiest. Thats why I was shocked when they came out with a new advertising campaign promoting their 2009 Centennial Celebration with a brand new redesigned logo.

Now I agree that they needed to redesign their logo - but this new logo makes no sense to me. In my opinion, this new logo was picked because it looks young and trendy. Thats it! It doesn't reference the old museum logo or for that matter anything at the museum. Being familiar with the museum and visiting it so many times - I could not come up with any good rational to defend this new logo. Look I understand that they need to appeal to a younger crowd, I totally get that. But, I feel this could have done this in a better way. What's the point of a logo that has no meaning.

A Positive Note on the Whole Tropicana Redesign

There has been a lot of coverage over the whole Tropicana redesign. I don't really want to spend too much time on it, other than saying  - There is a positive side to the whole Tropicana design - the "squeeze" screw top that looks like an orange. I thought that was cleverly executed, I was more fascinated with that simple design then the whole new Tropicana package. I am glad that they are retaining the "squeeze" screw top even as they are returning to the old Tropicana packaging.

Side Note: In the long run this whole Tropicana misstep (in misstep I'm talking about Pepsi Co pulling the new Tropicana design) will become a problem for the graphic design community and designers in general. As a fall out from all this, I fear that companies will rethink redesigning their products - as well as second-guessing graphic designers and their design decisions. This will hurt the graphic design community tremendously.