[logo] Seattle's Capitol Hill: A Splash Of Something Green, Or Something

2271.Not very long ago on Twitter, @Vonster tweeted thus:

RT @megankirby: Capitol hill logo causing a flurry. http://bit.ly/80NZpm "Dynamism?" That is unadulterated graphic poopiness.

That was too good not to chase down. Here's what I found at the end:

Now, there is a Capitol Hill neigborhood here in PDX, but this happens to be the one in Seattle, Chamber of Commerce office was apparently looking for a bit of a brand refresh.

The structure of the logo should be simple to see even for the beginner: the words "capitol hill", in green, copied many times and turned into a green "cloud" upon which a white-stroked copy of same is positioned in front of it all, knocking out the green color and performing the reveal. The logo talk, as per the Chamber's press release, have this to say about the new look, developed by Bellevue ad firm Kite:

The brand strategy and visual design convey key themes that came up in the research and are part of the overall brand including: inclusivity, energy, diversity and dynamism. The idea behind the design is to visually represent the spirit of the socially inclusive and multi-faceted community by creating a solid background with the name "Capitol Hill" repeated many times.

Not really bad. Kind of hip and looks modern and artsy. But is the message coming through? The comments on the article that broke the change at The Slog, the online blog component of Seattle's The Stranger, suggest that – at best, the commenter (many of whom assert that they are design-trained) are a fun read anyway:

• This makes me feel like I've had a couple of quadruple venti Americanos.
• This makes me less regretful that I moved to Ballard in the '90s.
• epileptic
• Makes me feel like someone put a roofie in my drink.
  

But wait! It's not 100% haters, yo:

• I haven't read through all the comments, cause I wanted to add my first impression without other input. But I quite like it. With the layering of the words it reminds me of the varying levels of the hill topography. The feel of the logo evokes Urban to me. It actually kind of feels like a t.v. show logo, something that would feature hipsters in a soap opera like dynamic. Because of the nature of the hill, I would of course add in some anarchists, urban ag people, and the gays to add flavor.
• At least they spelled it right

So, you can't please 100% of the peoples 100% of the time. That's life, I suppose.

My review?

Well … it's a logo. And it's green. Green FTW!

Technorati Tags: logo design, brand design, capitol hill, seattle