INTL. REVIEW BY Bruno Córdova POSTED BY Brand New

Horror Government (and Logo)

After the devastation caused by a 8.8 earthquake, 210 miles south from Santiago, an aftershock destroyed a cubed logo used during ten years of socialist Presidents (Ricardo Lagos, Michelle Bachelet). On March 9th, two days before Sebastián Piñera inauguration, his appointed-to-be speaker announced a new official logo for the incoming administration. Piñera, a conservative businessman, won a run-off in last january, becoming the first right-wing candidate to be democratically elected President in 52 years.

“In these hard times this country’s on, it’s necessary to appeal to the nation’s unity. That’s why we were finding a symbol that could represent our history and that could make every Chilean identified with”. — Ena von Baer, new government speaker.

Guess what? The nation’s unity depends on putting back together the good old coat of arms. Designed by Hambre, a local agency that has been working along with Piñera since he was a candidate. According to the Chilean Constitution, the coat of arms actually is an official nation symbol, but most Chileans relate that to the seventeen years of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship between 1973 and 1990. Sometimes, historic symbols divide people. Besides, it’s grey! And it’s tough! Definitely not friendly as the coat also includes the controversial motto “Por la razón o la fuerza” (“By right or might”).

The problem is that the incoming government doesn’t know the difference between “historic” and “timeless.” A timeless icon may be historic, but not the other way round. Well, that’s just half of the issue. “This typeface is a modern type that shows future and a colorful hope”, von Baer said. Wrong. It’s Century Gothic, a typeface you can find in most of Windows computers. Government picked a randomly chosen future.

And the logo itself has serious problems. It won’t work in a minimum size: the motto on the coat of arms will be impossible to read when printed small, and it was not conceived for its usage in one color, as well: were the waves tested in one color? Those are problems a designer should care while preparing the usage guidelines manual, and judging from the actual Chile government guidelines [PDF], the one-color logo is quite a mess.

President Piñera and First Lady Cecilia Morel wearing a red jacket with a logo in white, March 11th. Source: FotoPresidencia.

Since this logo was announced, people (design professionals or not) say through social media this mark is too expensive — a reported US$200,000 — to be that ugly. Others say this is a clip art and Word art combined. Webzines are challenging their readers to design something as cheap as the official logo. Even the parent owner of Hambre, lawyer Hernán Larraín Matte, son of a conservative senator and member of influential families in Chile, has become the laughing stock of Facebook and Twitter.

“12 things I hate about Government logo”, one of the multiple jokes about the new symbol. In spanish.

This logo will be spread across every public department in the country. It will be the letterhead of messages to be sent around the world… A logo is a country image matter. A government should take this really seriously. “The new way to govern”, as Piñera claimed in his campaign, thinks quality brand design is incidental.

Finally, to make matters more questionable, due to the large complaints, incoming government stated on March 10th that this logo is just “temporary”, for six months, as they announce a call for tender for a definitive logo.

Thanks to Felipe Lavín Z. for the tip.

josh’s comment is:

I like the type, hate the coat of arms. it feels ugly and oppressive and it wont fax. I kinda like that i haven’t seen century used for a while on a logo, we should be happy it isn’t gotham.

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:33 AM

sam’s comment is:

“let’s just live-trace this silver jug my grandad gave me!”

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:37 AM

John McCollum’s comment is:

Oh how I hate this logo. A simplified, modernized coat of arms would have worked. But to call this thing schizophrenic would be an understatement.

It looks like half of the logo wants to return to the 1800s and the other half wishes it was married to the Obama logo.

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate this.

Did I mention that I hate this?

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:38 AM

Diego Daly’s comment is:

Hey what’s up?

I live in Chile and studied advertising. I think this article is correct in everything it says.

Didn’t know that they said logo was temporary, haha thank god!

Here’s a useful link: (in spanish)

http://www.editando.cl/2010/03/nuevo-logo-de-chile-con-obama-inside.html

They compare Obama’s logo with Piñera’s. There’s a graphic, you can see in 6 steps how they did the “CHILE”, century gothic with colors inside.

Allright, goodybye.

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:42 AM

Dale Campbell’s comment is:

Unfortunate that something like this is left to represent an entire country. I can ONLY assume that the United States’ “Great Seal” was an inspiration. And it’s not the like The Great Seal of The United States (with eagle, arrows and olive branch) is anything to write home about.

Armin/Brand New Team, I’m interested to know whether you were able to find out if this was done by an agency (hired by the government) or some kind of in-house government creative department. I’ll be looking for the answer and let you know if I find anything out.

Just curious.

As usual, thank you for the great post.

Keep well,
Dale

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:43 AM

Karl’s comment is:

It doesn’t make sense,
the only thing it suggests is a confused government.
(to be honest they’ve probably got bigger issues on their plate)

i.e.
Client:
we want a conservative coat of arms
BUT
can we have it in a new contemporary look
AND
then we can use some modern looking type beneath
BUT
it needs to include the national colours
OH
and we want the crest in a 3d clay render.

In the spirit of constructive criticism :)…
may I suggest using more intelligent voting criteria that do not encourage snap judgements. ‘Great’, ‘Fine’ & ’ Bad’ may get to the point but tend to undervalue the design process.

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:49 AM

Prescott Perez-Fox’s comment is:

This is strange — usually the crests and seals and other historical marks are immune from the normal ebbs and flows of logo design trends. In other words, your government can have a modern logo for some uses, and keep the old-school crest for certain purposes.

In terms of the crest itself, it seems a little clumsy, with that 3D effect. I’d think they’d instead go for the engraving look, where they could print it using a single-colour but still achieve some dimensionality. The outlined version is pretty rotten — it seems they need something in between.

On Mar.22.2010 at 08:15 AM

qwertyale’s comment is:

I see a TSUNAMI (dark blue) coming (side view) inside “CHILE”.

On Mar.22.2010 at 08:18 AM

buruno’s comment is:

Wow, at first I thought the “after” and “before” were misplaced.

I couldn’t agree more with Josh, regarding the typeface. It would look even better with the former symbol, I might add.

On Mar.22.2010 at 08:20 AM

Armin’s comment is:

> Armin/Brand New Team, I’m interested to know whether you were able to find out if this was done by an agency (hired by the government) or some kind of in-house government creative department. I’ll be looking for the answer and let you know if I find anything out.

Dale, as stated in the article, it was designed by “Hambre” a Chilean agency.

On Mar.22.2010 at 08:55 AM

contraculto’s comment is:

I think John got it exactly right:

“Oh how I hate this logo. A simplified, modernized coat of arms would have worked. But to call this thing schizophrenic would be an understatement.

It looks like half of the logo wants to return to the 1800s and the other half wishes it was married to the Obama logo.”

On Mar.22.2010 at 09:02 AM

Ryan Adair’s comment is:

This is not even worth commenting on. (Even though this is a comment).

On Mar.22.2010 at 09:25 AM

Dale Campbell’s comment is:

Armin,

My apologies, I must have skimmed over that - I usually look for the links to the designers responsible.

Thanks for pointing it out!

On Mar.22.2010 at 09:25 AM

Sara Tack’s comment is:

Is it just me or did they not optically balance the typography? The left edge of the C and G do indeed line up vertically (when I pulled the logo into Indesign and ruled them) but the line up doesn’t account for the scale differences between the C and the G. Optically the C looks slightly indented causing the balance of Gobierno to feel - precarious.

On Mar.22.2010 at 10:07 AM

Mantiuxa’s comment is:

The fact that typeface is on most windows computers doesn’t make it worse, does it?

On Mar.22.2010 at 10:19 AM

Weeeh’s comment is:

I am from Chile. And I think this horror is a statement of how things work in this country, never look for the best just for the best connected.

On Mar.22.2010 at 11:03 AM

Rosie’s comment is:

I like the general idea behind it - blending something very traditional with more modern type…but the execution is atrocious. The coat of arms looks blurry…like they grabbed a small image of it from google, blew it up, and added some photoshop effects. The type has some nice energy, but the execution here is also pretty bad.

I don’t know anything about the political climate in Chile, but I would imagine that using a symbol representative of a dictatorship in a democracy is not the way to go.

On Mar.22.2010 at 11:16 AM

Rafa’s comment is:

Is poor, there is no connection between image and typography.
“Por la razón o por la fuerza” , “by reason or by force”, is a dangerous anachronism, typical of dinosaurs.
Once again the governments do not understand communication.

On Mar.22.2010 at 11:27 AM

Leonardo’s comment is:

Just a little clarification: The coat of arms, including the motto “Por la razón o la fuerza”, has existed for a long time, they just remade it with a “new” style (if you can call that a new style). It’s not even a vector image, it’s a raster, and a bad one. So no, the agency didn’t create it, neither copied it from the Seal of the United States.

On Mar.22.2010 at 11:36 AM

Zanda’s comment is:

An example of branding horribly gone South!

On Mar.22.2010 at 11:46 AM

grubedoo’s comment is:

I think this might actually be the proverbial case of somebody’s nephew having Photoshop on his computer and designing the logo.

On Mar.22.2010 at 11:51 AM

gonzalo’s comment is:

“Por la razón o por la fuerza”
What a message and what a logo…

On Mar.22.2010 at 12:01 PM

Alex P.’s comment is:

Considering the poor quality of the coat of arms, the emblem should have been completely redrawn. Having said that, this redesign is not that “horrific”. At least, it’s an improvement. The juxtaposition of the grayscaled emblem paired with the multi-colored letterforms of the CHILE logotype actually look quite nice in Century Gothic.

On Mar.22.2010 at 12:03 PM

Tim Gengler’s comment is:

Before reading about the various controversial aspects of the logo, my first instinct was that I thought it was fantastic.

The waves on the logo don’t do much, but the typeface choice and the emblem actually work really well for me as a symbol of the government, and I even like the line drawing version. Of course, the whole project is riddled with problems and must be changed, but I want to love this logo when I look at it.

On Mar.22.2010 at 01:15 PM

MarcusVss’s comment is:

Ok, so they just payed a lot of money for a temporary (and incredibly bad) logo…

On Mar.22.2010 at 01:27 PM

Brian Spence’s comment is:

I don’t think it’s as horrible as all the comments here. I would think the logotype could be improved with a bit stronger eye towards typography, but the concept isn’t awful. I’m a big fan of crests, and yes, the rendering could be better, but overall I’d say the new logo is just amateur-ish. It needs to be refined, but it captures all the ‘design by committee’ ideas that were inevitably thrown at it, which should count for something.

On Mar.22.2010 at 02:36 PM

Luke’s comment is:

I’m not a big fan of the hood ornament version, but I actually really like the line art black and white version. Sure, I can’t read what it says or tell what anything is (a deer with a glove on its head and a turkey lifting up it’s dress maybe?) but I think it has a good feel to it.

On Mar.22.2010 at 03:17 PM

jko (from chile)’s comment is:

“By reason or by force” on the coat. Is the Chilean Motto, and is a clear back to the past. Even now the dictatorship is present, and this logo is too oppressive for this moment. After the earthquake there are sectors and military curfew on the streets. Everything fits again.

On Mar.22.2010 at 04:34 PM

Mathieu Hubert’s comment is:

Totally agreeing with Sara on the typography, it’s not balanced… ouch…

On Mar.22.2010 at 05:04 PM

CG’s comment is:

Some things should be done by designers.

Hambre is an advertising agency which experience its mostly in short and top selling campaigns. Clearly there is no experience on brand design and its obvious that there is no strategy in this logo too. In the words of Jorge Leiva, the work was done in 2 weeks, and it’s really annoying that after the bad reception, they announced that it was only temporary.

In Chile convincing people that a good brand design is an investment it is really hard, and this “short term very expensive logo” only makes it harder.

As a result of those 2 weeks, we will be stuck with that monster for the next 8 months, very similar on what an advertising campaign should last.

CG

PD. JKO, nice place to catch you.

On Mar.22.2010 at 05:16 PM

Tez’s comment is:

What was wrong with the old logo again?

On Mar.22.2010 at 05:28 PM

Cameron Booth’s comment is:

Is this a design critique or a political diatribe?

It is all to obvious to me that the reviewer’s distaste for the new government of Chile is colouring his view of the logo, horrible as it is. Phrases such as “laughing stock” and inferences that Century Gothic was “randomly chosen” - without any proof to back this observation up - have no place in a serious design review, which should allow readers to draw their own conclusions and voice their own opoinions without having the “right” viewpoint shoved down their throat.

On Mar.22.2010 at 05:50 PM

Brian Son’s comment is:

It feels like it’s going backwards with the coat of arms treatment, the type however moves a contemporary push, but what you achieve is visual friction — the incompatibility between the coat of arms illustration and a modern type treatment.

Coat of arms should be left to fashion and automobile companies for logos.

On Mar.22.2010 at 05:53 PM

John McCollum’s comment is:

Quoth Brian Spence “It needs to be refined, but it captures all the ‘design by committee’ ideas that were inevitably thrown at it, which should count for something.”

NO! That should not count for anything. In fact, that’s a serious mark against the brand.

That having been said, I CAN imagine one scenario under which this brand could have been presented and approved…

—

Designer: If I throw in all the crap you’re asking for, you’ll get a fudge-cluster that will look something like this…

Client: Ooohh! I like. I really AM smart at designing.

Designer: [sound of designer stabbing self in face]

On Mar.22.2010 at 06:23 PM

John McCollum’s comment is:

By reason or by force? Looks like they went with the latter.

On Mar.22.2010 at 06:24 PM

Nisio’s comment is:

It’s actually ok, not great, but ok. Yeah the vector could be nicer, and the 3d could be better, but it’s a crest, it’s supposed to be complex, it’s a visual history of a country refined into a symbol, that’s part if the charm of it.

Agree with one if the comments above, getting a bit political.

On Mar.22.2010 at 07:03 PM

Ray Rubio’s comment is:

too heavy on the right side.

On Mar.22.2010 at 09:17 PM

Alex C.’s comment is:

Corporatism looks better with a faux 3D effect.

On Mar.22.2010 at 10:28 PM

Evelyn Abarzua’s comment is:

Que guea es esta…? una mierda…tal cual como el presidente!

On Mar.22.2010 at 10:43 PM

SSSSSNAKES!’s comment is:

Yeah, kinda like how Obama administration is “historic” but horrible.

On Mar.22.2010 at 10:49 PM

qwertyale’s comment is:

I respect the cultural stuff but I think

“INCREIBLE”

when people says that loved it.
It’s really GORGEOUS to read something that you don’t expect here at BN.

On Mar.22.2010 at 10:55 PM

Francisco Cifuentes’s comment is:

some useful facts about this:
-it was designed and aproved by Sebastian Piñera before even being oficially elected(issues like jackets and paper sheets were printed days before the official results were announced).
-therefore, he paid on his own $200.000 for this.
-it was revealed that the person behind this desing isn’t even a designer, but a lawyer.
-common agreement also points that no one can explain why, while the country’s traditional colours are white, blue and red, it features such a misplaced color such as light blue.
-its also a common agreement that he should either keep the logo he used in his campaing or revamp the old one.
-it was later revealed that they had to put lightblue because the original desing couldn’t use white on “CHILE” because it was obiusly going to erase half of the word when printed over white.

On Mar.23.2010 at 12:07 AM

m3i zero’s comment is:

I have gone through this information.I would say that let out 100 millones to pay this monstrosity?How’s that for making the logo of the company hired a government-linked and Pinera command in which the note is involved according to the senator’s son larrain?Why not be called public tender?It started with things murky?

On Mar.23.2010 at 12:21 AM

Anthony Hawkins’s comment is:

No connection between type and coat of arms. They appear to be two separate logos stacked on top of each other

On Mar.23.2010 at 12:35 AM

Duane’s comment is:

Wow, now this is terrible.
Most coat of arms I know of are at least have a sense of visual balance. When looking at this one you just feel as though it is going to to topple over the the right.

On Mar.23.2010 at 01:21 AM

Paul’s comment is:

Unfortunately this brand does not seem to resonate. The type and the brand do not seem to work together at all.

On Mar.23.2010 at 04:41 AM

Ezequias Viana’s comment is:

O símbolo não se comunica com a tipografia. Talvez quiseram unir passado e futuro. Poderia te ficado melhor.

On Mar.23.2010 at 08:14 AM

IhateDesign’s comment is:

youre ridiculous…..

you dont know about our history and assume this identity as a “pinochet” thing…

haha

this shield is used in every coin in chile, in the passed 40 years….

so is part of our history and is assumed like a great brand (not the best) but is better than the last one.

analize the last one please!!

On Mar.23.2010 at 09:25 AM

David Sanchez’s comment is:

I will take the code of arms before the isometric cubes. There is an odd optical illusion between the Gobierno simple type and the treated Chile mark however in my unsolicited opinion admirable step up. The title “horrible” is an understatement, pity and very Americana in terms of lack of cultural sensitivity. Are you in the branding business?

On Mar.23.2010 at 10:19 AM

Eli’s comment is:

So, wait… why does the font face being on Windows computers automatically make it bad? You can insert a typical snide remark about stuck-up Apple users and designers here if you wish.

I think you should criticize the font choice for real reasons (which do exist), not because of the platform it comes on by default.

On Mar.23.2010 at 11:03 AM

Bruno Córdova’s comment is:

Cameron Booth said: Phrases such as “laughing stock” and inferences that Century Gothic was “randomly chosen” - without any proof to back this observation up - have no place in a serious design review.

First, Larraín Matte DID become the “laughing stock”. That’s a fact. There are tweets, Facebook groups, articles on webzines against the amateurism done by someone’s son. If this didn’t cause a bigger controversy in Chile (newspapers, TV didn’t criticize the logo), it’s just because the guy is part of influential families in a LatAm country. Chile is not ruled by the same merit principles as United States.

Second, I’ve been following Hambre works since Piñera was a candidate and his candidate logo was a coloured star because they wanted to express diversity: well, that’s just the reason why rival coalition (Concertación) uses a rainbow as a symbol! And that rainbow exists since late eighties! Later, once Piñera won the run-off, agency came up with another star for the transition, a flag inscribed in a star: very literal, not very original.

As Mexicans say, “cero y van tres”. The government logo is their third work for Piñera and it has the same lack of sophistication. Since Century Gothic is installed in every computer with Microsoft Office, can’t we speculate with the fact that CHILE part is actually a Wordart?

OK, serious. Having hundreds of typefaces that could (kinda) match to the coat of arms, they choose Century Gothic. So wasn’t the typeface randomly chosen?

There are more arguments to prove the phrases Cameron disliked. But I don’t want to bore people reading comments.

On Mar.23.2010 at 04:26 PM

lukasz’s comment is:

hahah@video

On Mar.23.2010 at 10:13 PM

Ken Peters’s comment is:

Reminds me of the coat of arms that Queen used on a couple of their early album covers. Probably not where they want your mind to go with this logo.

On Mar.23.2010 at 10:16 PM

enrolled agent test’s comment is:

It’s just too somber for me. If they wanted something light so as not to remind the people what they’ve been through, past and present, it would have been advisable to put in colors on the coat of arms. Not just plain gray. I mean, that’s too…DARK, even for the merest observer. It is also in stark contrast to the text that they have on the logo.

On Mar.24.2010 at 09:20 AM

D’s comment is:

I’m chlean and currently practice graphic design at an ad agency here in the states.

I have to say that the identity for the government is atrocious and demonstrates de lack of talent that is ever-present in Chile. That logo shows 2 completely opposite directions and feels disjointed. Nothing in that logo is right.

A truly embarassing logo that belongs in the recycling bin.

GREAT job chilean designers.

On Mar.24.2010 at 01:24 PM

Durka’s comment is:

This is an absolute disgrace. The ‘C’ in Chile creates the optical illusion, below the ‘G’ that it’s sitting too far in to the right. I hate it, it’s completely awkward.

The colour through the type? What the hell? Armin already said what I was thinking.

The coat of arms… my god, where to start… terrible, just awful.

I haven’t seen a logo this bad in years… and that’s saying something.

This is typical government thinking… there aren’t many places in the world where a bunch of moronic bureaucrats won’t completely destroy a good idea because of the fact that they’re all climbing over each other for a stake of ownership in said creation.

Sad.

On Mar.24.2010 at 09:02 PM

felipe’s comment is:

Me parce fantastico que hablen de esto.Ya que es un problema realmente serio en mi país, lo cual debe solucionarse lo mas pronto posible y de manera mucho mas profesional.

Felicitaciones por su sitio!

saludos desde Chile

On Mar.25.2010 at 10:42 AM

fernanda’s comment is:

es horrible el nuevo logo, antes de que se eligiera a piñera, se pensaba sacar esa frase, que está en algunas monedas de chile. no puedo entender por qué en este nuevo gobierno hablan de una cosa pero al final hacen otra. saludos desde chile.

On Mar.25.2010 at 09:07 PM

Italo’s comment is:

This logo tends to look like the old 3rd reich propaganda logo.

I’m shame of current people working in the government, too much improvisation and very few really solutions.

As far as the logo, please don’t even make me start on it…

On Mar.26.2010 at 11:25 AM

Daniel’s comment is:

I want Michelle Bachelet back!!!!! This president sucks!!!!!!!!!

On Mar.27.2010 at 01:50 PM

Amber’s comment is:

“Por la razón o por la fuerza”

I prefer “Shile” logo, it’s more serious than that shitty motto.

On Mar.27.2010 at 04:23 PM

MSGDS’s comment is:

This is just poorly done. Everything is disjointed.

On Mar.29.2010 at 11:20 AM

Koivulahti’s comment is:

Somehow i still like the new logo, without the backround. Afture all this “new logo” doesn’t seem to logo at all… It look’s like something we call here in Finland “vaakuna” wich is totally different thing.

Normally the vaakuna and the logo are used by separated.
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikiprojekti_Vaakunat

On Mar.31.2010 at 01:59 PM

EMD’s comment is:

I tend to agree with Cameron Booth’s POV.

You may not like the logo or the government, but to conflate and/or confuse both as the same under the auspices of graphic design critique is messy and irresponsible.

Horror government? What does that even mean in the context of discussing a logo?

Armin, you need to be a more watchful editor.

On Apr.02.2010 at 10:12 AM

Marcelo Alvarez B.’s comment is:

El tema fue muy discutido en nuestro país, escribí dos artículos sobre el mismo, los invito a leerlos.

Visiten: http://www.alvarezcastelli.cl/wordpress/

Saludos

Marcelo Alvarez B.
alvarezcastelli.cl
Rancagua, Chile

On Apr.11.2010 at 04:41 PM

Jesse’s comment is:

It’s very typical for incoming governments to change their branding and get rid of all branding from previous governments, especially if they are ideologically opposed. It is also typical to revert to coat of arms, or imperialist type of symbolism and conservative imagery.

On May.18.2010 at 09:55 AM

andrea’s comment is:

At least is not as bad as the new one we got in El Salvador. We can’t freely criticize it because, we may get killed and stuff. yeah, but it sucks. check it out, to see what I’m talking about
http://damr.net/2009/07/11/nuevo-logo-del-gobierno-de-el-salvador-opiniones

On May.21.2010 at 12:13 AM

CRISTIAN’s comment is:

this new logo is ESPANTOSO

On Jul.13.2010 at 03:33 PM

Mark’s comment is:

GAG horrible WAY too much on in this ahem “logo” the line drawing is the worst one color solution I have ever seen.

WTF is it supposed to represent? really!?

On Jul.13.2010 at 05:49 PM

Matthew’s comment is:

What? No Gotham? :(

On Jul.31.2010 at 03:08 PM

Kim’s comment is:

This is awful. Poor execution. Coat of arms is a fine idea, but when put in the hands of Gen Y photoshop user… The type is ordinary and doesn’t work at all when combined.

On Aug.17.2010 at 01:42 AM