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This is almost two months old, but it’s something I meant to post when it came out and somehow forgot to. The Community of Madrid, which is one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain, unveiled a new logo that they will use to promote Madrid-based businesses in other countries, complementing the launch of a network of offices around the world that will support the international endeavors of these businesses. The Community of Madrid already has a logo, a red square with the seven stars of Madrid’s flag, which some people argued would have been enough instead of having to make a new one — specially a new one with such an odd message.
President of the region, Esperanza Aguirre
“Mad About You,” seems like a catchy phrase derived from Madrid, but it’s surprising that for an international effort, no one mentioned that in the U.S. the only trigger to that phrase would be Paul Reiser’s quick-paced muttering in the namesake 1990s sitcom. And beyond the verbal oddity of this logo, designed by Cros & Machín, is the visual execution of “MADRID” in three different weights of Helvetica for no apparent reason. Not to mention the unnecessary cropping of the “R”, which according to their press release is meant to evoque the letter “ñ” — as a Spanish-speaking designer I have no idea why they would want evoke that for either design or language reasons. The only saving grace of this logo is the inclusion of the seven stars in the upper-right corner of the “M”, they could have probably stopped there — the banner in the photo below almost looks great.
Jump to Most Recent Comment
Marcel M.’s comment is:
kinda reminds me of the TED logo
On May.27.2008 at 01:21 PM
Jerry Kuyper’s comment is:
Turning MA - DRID into MAD - RID is odd indeed. One might assume it made more sense for a Spanish speaking audience, but this is clearly intended for an international audience.
The diminishing type weight reinforces the "getting rid" association, which I would recommend for this name/logo.
On May.27.2008 at 01:26 PM
kris’s comment is:
Once again, designers need to ask themselves "why" more often – there's no reason for the second half.
I do admit though, I'm glad they made the effort; but a few changes would make a huge difference (for the better).
On May.27.2008 at 01:33 PM
Dave’s comment is:
I think that the intention to invoke the "ñ" is the weirdest part. I live in Barcelona, and I only see the ñ used as a symbol in imperialist pro-Spain graffiti (I think that Spanish is the only language of the five spoken in Spain that uses that letter). Could have been a nice mark, but looks like they blew it.
On May.27.2008 at 01:50 PM
drew kora’s comment is:
I think the chopped R creates a really odd effect of lifting the "RID" part of the logo...especially if you squint your eyes at it/view it from a distance. It's just...odd.
On May.27.2008 at 02:14 PM
Alfonso’s comment is:
I read about this on Quinta Tinta (spanish-language link) when it came out. For those of you interested in a bit of insight into why such a horrible logotype came into fruition, you can read this (spanish-language) post on designer Álvaro Sobrino's blog, in which he tells of his conversation with the designers responsible for the logo.
On May.27.2008 at 02:14 PM
Andrew’s comment is:
I get a very Communist feeling from this logo. Madrid isn't Communist is it?
On May.27.2008 at 02:22 PM
William C Bonner’s comment is:
This causes me to notice the RID part of Madrid much more. To me the word Rid would be a negative. I've never been to Madrid. It's been on my list of places to visit for years. I don't know how it's pronounced by locals. I always though it was pronounced more like Mah-Drid instead of Mad-Rid. Emphasizing the negative seems wrong to me.
On May.27.2008 at 02:23 PM
Jefferson’s comment is:
"Turning MA - DRID into MAD - RID is odd indeed."
"I think that the intention to invoke the "ñ" is the weirdest part."
Agreed and agreed, both the execution AND thought-process here seems suspect. My suspicion is that the logo's flaws were not really addressed until it was finished, thus the half-baked rationalization to try and explain them away.
Also, I really disagree with Armin about the stars. They are just kind of stuck in that thing, they don't add any aesthetic value and I find them to be quite distracting, even ugly. I question their value as a reference point to Spain in the international community as well.
On May.27.2008 at 02:35 PM
kaz’s comment is:
“I only see the ñ used as a symbol in imperialist pro-Spain graffiti”
It is not like that at all, in fact you seem to forget that spanish is not only spoken in Spain, but in a lot of other countries, and the Ñ has always been used as a symbol of the language, not the country.
“I think that Spanish is the only language of the five spoken in Spain that uses that letter”
Wrong again, of all the languages that are spoken in Spain, the only one that actually doesn't use the Ñ is Catalan (including Valencian and Balearic). Because so does Galician, Asturian (including Leonese), Euskara and Spanish.
And as for the logo, well, at least they tried but it's not convincing at all...
On May.27.2008 at 02:39 PM
Kosal Sen’s comment is:
Not trying to be a jerk, really. Can anyone explain how the cropped R is evocative of an ñ? I'm confused. First glance, I read "Madrid. about you", then "rid about you", because of the color coding. The only thing that made sense after that was "Mad about you."
Disagree with the stars for the fact that it scales poorly with the rest of the logo.
On May.27.2008 at 03:01 PM
Neil MacLean’s comment is:
The differing weights in this, especially between the 'R' and 'I', are just horrible.
On May.27.2008 at 03:04 PM
Mark’s comment is:
This the logo is about 16 years out of date, argh it seems a bit clunky anyway with the word play.
a little update to let you know about A&E (I'm surprised that it happened) and Lifetime have recently updated their logos.
On May.27.2008 at 04:16 PM
Mark’s comment is:
let me clarify my previous statement heres what the logo immediately reminded me of.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103484/
On May.27.2008 at 04:20 PM
Mark’s comment is:
aw, crap you beat me to it anyway.
On May.27.2008 at 04:22 PM
Andrew Meyer’s comment is:
When I first saw the logo, I didn't look closely and "MAD" just popped out. My instant question was, "Is Madrid an angry city?" Then, I realized what they were trying to do, but it added a level of confusion and potentially a negative image. (or crazy instead of angry if you're a British English speaker.)
On May.27.2008 at 05:02 PM
JR’s comment is:
...what the Hell? I don't get it.
Miha Medvedsek’s comment is:
I don't like and understand it. Maybe; Get RID of beeing MAD!?
On May.27.2008 at 05:32 PM
Seth’s comment is:
It looks like MAD rid...I didn't know what that was until I read the description...
FAIL
On May.27.2008 at 05:54 PM
Char’s comment is:
"I live in Barcelona, and I only see the ñ used as a symbol in imperialist pro-Spain graffiti"
WRONG
I think that Spanish is the only language of the five spoken in Spain that uses that letter
Castellano is that language and that's the one spoken in Madrid, so I dont see your point.
I am in no way trying to defend this logo. I hate it as much or more than some of you. The use of MAD is because cities in Spain, just like the states in the US, use an abbreviation system. Barcelona (BCN), for example.
This logo is bad bad bad for tourism and the tagline is cheezy and non-sensical like most Spanish ads. Spanish people are very oblivious about marketing.
In spite of all this mistake, QUE VIVA ESPAÑA!!!
On May.27.2008 at 05:58 PM
Miles’s comment is:
It really seems like if they'd used only one weight, maybe even only two weights, this could have worked OK. The cropped R still wouldn't make much sense but it would look all right.
On May.27.2008 at 07:25 PM
Joe Szczepaniak’s comment is:
Koo’s comment is:
MAD-RID looks like an organization that does frantic pest removal. I don't know. That's just me.
I agree that the stars are elegant enough to hold up a new mark on its own, and I wished the execution involved a cleaner yet clever variation of that. I think the lesson learned here is to not search for a design chock full of bold and progressive messages, but settle for that one idea that tells a simple story of heritage... especially if it's representing an entire community of Spain.
Since every blogging community has "one-of-those-guys", I guess I will be the one to say it. When stood upright, the I and D combination make it appear almost phallic. It's just an added dimension of consideration when it comes to mark application, but I don't know, that's just me.
http://www.underconsideration.com/mt_uc/mt-search.cgi?search=ogc&Template=search_brandnew&IncludeBlogs=4
Anonymous’s comment is:
¿Helvetíca? ¡Que apropiado!
On May.27.2008 at 10:13 PM
Dane Lincoln’s comment is:
The "ñ" only seems apparent in the vertical banner where the "n" is the counter of the capital "R" The accent ~ is the leg of the capital "R". Hope this helps
On May.27.2008 at 10:43 PM
Darren Hoyt’s comment is:
in the U.S. the only trigger to that phrase would be Paul Reiser's quick-paced muttering in the namesake 1990s sitcom.
I didn't think about Paul Reiser, I thought about Belinda Carlisle.
On May.27.2008 at 11:48 PM
dertobi’s comment is:
Despite the Mad | Rid-thing that doesn't exactly makes me want to go to Madrid, the usage of three different weights of Helvetica feels like early 90's, the 'incorporation' of the stars is so uninspired and irritating ('They want those stars, just put them … you know … somewhere') that it makes the equally shallow campaign be.berlin look good in comparison.
On May.28.2008 at 05:04 AM
João Gomes’s comment is:
Love it/hate it, and I'm not even Spanish... I'm Portuguese, though, and as a spanyards' neighbour, I'm recalling a similar "branding effort" which pissed the hell out of everyone here in Portugal last summer: the "Allgarve" fiasco (a wordplay with the Algarve region, from where my parents and all my relatives are).
At least, visually, it's not that bad, but I still think that the wordplay doesn't really work and the cropping, besides looking terrible, is detrimental to legibility. Two different wheights, without cropping, would suffice to make the wordplay work, and could maybe even enhance it.
Oh, and yes, it also reminds me of TED...
On May.28.2008 at 06:12 AM
João Gomes’s comment is:
Oh, and about the ñ character... Not to offend anyone in Spain (hey, I lived there for a few months and loved it :P) but, as a Portuguese, I think we should have the right to some hot tilde action...
Now, seriously, that capital "R" sucks, and doesn't even evoke a tilde, let alone a full ñ, which is the only character in Castellano and the aforementioned iberian languages which has it (Portuguese excluded, since we only use ã and õ and, not having been much influenced by the Spanish from the XVI century onwards, the "nh" digram for the exact same sound of ñ).
On May.28.2008 at 06:27 AM
Anonymous’s comment is:
Hmmm, I actually saw "Rid About You"... And why is the R so fat in comparison to the ID?!
On May.28.2008 at 07:38 AM
Remy Overkempe’s comment is:
Yeah, anonymous with the "Rid About You" comment was me.
On May.28.2008 at 07:38 AM
dosdedos’s comment is:
I must say: I worked in Cros & Machín when this logo was developed. Fortunately, I dropped the project before this logo came out, to work in something else.
Most of the things you are saying are right, but, as Alvaro Sobrino points out in his blog, nobody took the time to speak with the designers (except for him).
Even when its not my design, I must say that the thing with the Ñ is a complete invention of someone in the Comunidad de Madrid PR Department. It was not intended that way. However, I must say to Dave, even when in Spain you can find five spoken languages (great suprise for a latinamerica as my self... and all five really beatiful languajes), theres no doubt, castellano is the one spoken in la Comunidad de Madrid. Anyway. There no Ñ there.
I was against this logo, I don't like it, I don't like the proccess that gave up this result. I know the other creative material we worked on, I know we had better options, but I respect my colleagues and I know who were the ones making the choices here.
All the things I can say here (but I won), I said it first to my former boss. I don't want to repeat them 'cause they are not good things, and the people who needs to know, knows.
I just want to say that it's easy to point out bad things about other people work but it's probably more enriching to learn about it, specially on bad experiences.
(sorry for my english, I'm totally out of practice, and not sure if I made myself clear).
:-)
On May.28.2008 at 01:31 PM
Glenn Sakamoto’s comment is:
No style or grace, just a mediocre idea executed poorly.
This identity makes me mad!
On May.28.2008 at 06:10 PM
Oscar’s comment is:
Odd indeed, I totally agree with your comments... When I saw it before reading I immediately tought they must be mad (ha) to have approved something like this.
On May.28.2008 at 08:52 PM
Jamie’s comment is:
Wait, what? When I was in Madrid a few years ago I kept seeing a stylized bear climbing a strawberry tree emblazoned on all of the public works signage and thought it was an interesting icon for a city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Escudo_de_Madrid.svg
(not a good example, but you get the gist)
I hate posting snark, but this new logo is just lazy. Design by committee strikes again.
On May.29.2008 at 01:02 AM
Mondayne’s comment is:
This seems oddly familiar. Changing the colour of a few letters to create a new word. The London version makes very little sense, and the Madrid makes much less. The whole thing makes me mad. And they should get rid of it.
On May.29.2008 at 08:15 AM
Mondayne’s comment is:
Oops; Oscar (as well as everyone else) best me to my mad joke. But the other part is still valid criticism.
On May.29.2008 at 08:17 AM
Mondayne’s comment is:
DANG! I mean "beat" me to my joke. Ugh.
On May.29.2008 at 08:17 AM
AL’s comment is:
It makes me getting RID of doing any business there. And what a MAD thing to choose a cold Helvetica for the Spanish capital!
On May.29.2008 at 09:40 AM
Jose Roseva’s comment is:
I don't think of Madrid as a very rational city, but this conception of madness is quite accurate to some Spanish characters, particularly Don Quixote, who actually was not from Madrid but certainly conveys the idea of oddness and surreality that most American or European visitors try to find in Spain, obviously (i guess) this was not the reason to arrive to such a stupid logo, I don't think local people can relate to it in a positive way, mainly because most people in Spain do not speak any English at all, but because of the color (bullfight red?) and the stars (monarchy), that is too stereotypical.
On May.29.2008 at 11:26 AM
Keith’s comment is:
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned how those stars probably aren't gonna show when printed at small scale, i.e. letterhead etc. More like dots than stars at such a scale.
On May.29.2008 at 05:33 PM
mog’s comment is:
"Mad" and "rid" are both fairly "negative" words. Why on Earth would one want to emphasize them?
Madrid had an excellent, simple logo for its recent Olympic bid. Why not re-use that? Or keep the current square? Or anything else but this...thing?
On May.29.2008 at 06:57 PM
ZedZedEye’s comment is:
I never did get that logo. Looks like a slug.
Mog, right on... very negative words. Just why?
On May.29.2008 at 11:31 PM
Sander’s comment is:
Citymarketing is very hot these days, many capitol cities try to gain attention with these new form of marketing. Recently I've written (in Dutch) a article about it at my blog.
Indeed MAD RID About You is strange, but take a look at BeBerlin of LondON.
One of the stronger citymarketing ideas is in my opinion iLoveNY and iAmsterdam.
On May.30.2008 at 04:18 PM
dosdedos’s comment is:
I found amazing that everybody has an opinion and no one said nothing about my comment.
You may have the opportunity to speak directly with the designers, and you don't seem interested.
I think this is the kind of situations that I think only harm our job...
:-(
Anyway, I like reading this blog
On Jun.01.2008 at 05:12 PM
keith’s comment is:
Keep in mind that in Madrid, Spain, they speak Spanish...not English.
"Mad" and "rid" don't mean anything to them.
On Jun.02.2008 at 12:58 PM
Johann Peter Werth’s comment is:
Just compare some of there:
On Jun.03.2008 at 07:48 AM
Johann Peter Werth’s comment is:
There I meant:
On Jun.03.2008 at 07:49 AM
Anonymous’s comment is:
If something is driving you mad, get rid of it...
On Jun.05.2008 at 02:38 PM
Brandon’s comment is:
I haven't seen it mentioned yet, and not that it necessarily justifies anything, but the "ID" seems to be intended to tie into the idea that the program will help promote the city's brands in other countries. That part of the logo would then also reinforce the "about you" tagline. Just pure speculation though.
Either way, they are trying to do too much with something that should and could be accomplished by something a bit simpler.
On Jun.05.2008 at 02:49 PM
Anonymous’s comment is:
mog—the words "mad" and "rid" aren't negative in spanish.
On Jun.11.2008 at 06:34 PM
Anonymous’s comment is:
形式不错!
On Jun.16.2008 at 01:40 AM
Goffredo Puccetti’s comment is:
Following dosdedos’s comments, I'd welcome the opportunity to hear straight from the designers about the project!
My opinion is that the result is extremely poor. I love Madrid and its unique flair is far from being represented by that red and black helvetica thing. Just my two cents.
Rgds,
G.
On Jun.17.2008 at 11:02 AM
dolor’s comment is:
madr.i.p.
On Aug.13.2008 at 02:28 PM
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