Have you ever tried to find information on a government website? It’s a daunting task to say the least most times, recently I tried to find out some information about MTO (Ministry of Transportation Ontario) offices in London and was directed to three different pages only one of which was helpful. Why when I can Google just about anything, does finding information on my government seem so troublesome?

That’s what Ari Schwartz and Jimmy Wales have been asking as well. Both are in a Washington Post article calling on governments to be more “googlable” and pass legislation forcing federal government websites and databases to be more search friendly. With four out of five people using search engines to find information online, it’s not a moment too soon in my opinion, but government is organized in such a way that achieving more open and operable sites might be a task that requires more forceful legislation then governments are willing to enact. The majority of government sites are built, designed, and function poorly. Much like some would say, the government itself. And the uptake on these new ideas will be just as slow as the Government.

Hot on the heals of Ontario’s new logo, Manitoba, playing off its spirited energy campaign, updated the longstanding bison logo that has represented the provincial government since 1984.

The new bison will retain the placement to the right of the word Manitoba, and the word Manitoba will use the same type treatment as the spirited energy campaign in black or green. The Premier’s Economic Advisory Council Image Task Force recommended the government’s logo be updated as part of the spirited energy campaign launched in June.

Culture Minister Eric Robinson said the changes are an evolution of the familiar bison, moving to a more energetic stance.

“With this change, we achieve two goals — refreshing the government’s visual identity and supporting the new province wide branding initiative,”.

The new bison is reminiscent of something you might expect to see painted on a cave wall, and as such is a little less refined and “governmental”. I didn’t mind the spirited energy campaign, but this logo rubs me the wrong way, I think it’s the front legs and tail. If the leg was a little tighter to the shoulder, and the tail a little more like the old one I think it would be a great improvement.

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The release of the new Ontario trillium designed by Toronto based Bendsimon Byrne has caused a lot of ruckus in Ontario and the industry this week, and everyone seems to have an opinion.

Norman Hathaway, designer of the old trillium, called it “atrocious”. Keith Rushton, professor at OCAD, said “It’s a very aggressive, hostile logo” and is somewhat doubtful it will reproduce well as smaller sizes due to the complexity. Even local MPP and NDP leader Howard Hampton is getting in on the act. “How Dalton McGuinty can justify giving a Liberal-friendly ad firm $219,000 to make the provincial logo look like the Ontario Liberal Party’s logo is simply beyond the pale”.

The whole controversy has brought up two common issues in the industry though, devaluation and design-by-committee.

The design industry is often devalued by the general public, which is made clear in the Toronto Star editorials assertion that design is something school children can do before they go to collage or get a real job. Most people will have trouble with the price tag on a job like this too, $219,000 seems like a lot of money for something when you could just use some clip art from MS Office, or have little Billy throw something together for you for $20.

Designing for governments is often design-by-committee, and anytime you step into a situation where design is a committee process of non-designers it visibly suffers from it. When Mr. Hathaway designed the original logo he had to fight with ideas coming at him from every MPP about cogs and rivers, ect, but luckily he ended up going with his gut and produced one of the more iconic logos in Canadian design history.

I can’t say I hate what has been dubbed “The Jacuzzi” logo as much as everyone else seems too, I can see why they wanted a change and the direction they were heading in, but I can’t say I like it either.
I liked the old logo personally, it had gained a lot of brand equity in the last forty two years, and despite the ‘94 and ‘04 modifications it presented very well. The assertion that it’s the synthesis of the Liberal Party’s logo (to the right) is a slight reach though, and an obvious attempt at trying to make this into a political issue for the sake of being in “opposition” rather then a design issue.

But considering how often the old logo was changed in such short time I don’t think we’ll have too long to wait for this new logo to go through the ringer again.

“Sunny Manitoba”, “Friendly Manitoba”, and now “Spirited Energy”. That is the new slogan designed to promote Manitoba as more then a province of harsh winters, mosquito’s, auto theft, and “friendly” people.

The goal is to create a “consistent, positive image for Manitoba that better reflects our creative edge, our quality of life and economic opportunities” said Bob Silver co-chairman of the Premier’s Economic Development Council.

It didn’t take long for people to react, the majority derided the new slogan. No one I’ve talked to out of Winnipeg has had something good to say about it, and for some reason people are already emailing the Mayor of Winnipeg despite the fact the slogan is a provincial matter. The price seems to be the hot topic, some claiming they could come up with better slogans by throwing rocks at people and using their responses. But if you look at neighboring Saskatchewan that spent $14 million for their campaign, or the city of Montreal spending $23 million, the price seems more then reasonable at $1.4 million.

Despite the negative reaction the province is standing behind the initiative. “Certainly doing nothing is not acceptable,” said Premier Gary Doer. “The business community has said that loud and clear.”

A TV ad, a website and a team of students will promote the new slogan, starting with selling the slogan to Manitobans, turning them into brand ambassadors.

The slogan doesn’t really strike me personally as the best solution for the problem. The collateral does look nice for the most part, but the TV ad’s script reads a little like a George Lucas movie, awkward. It also suffers from footage being doubled up on just to fill time. I’m hopeful phase two brings the initiative into maturity and they can make it work out.