The Balearic Government's Football Logo

What is the purpose of a logo? In general terms, it exists in order to be readily identifiable with an organisation: it is the immediate visual identity where the public is concerned. Furthermore, it conveys attributes of the organisation and these in turn support attributes inherent to the brand.

These sorts of explanation, replete with reference to the brand, are applicable in the business world. Logos can be big business and attract big dollars (or any other currency). I have some recollection, for example, about Wolff Olins once getting an absolute stack for coming up with a new-look British Airways logo.

The world's leading logos are highly recognisable. Take Apple for example. Or Nike. While recognisable and memorable, it's a matter of conjecture as to what they actually "say" about the brand or company. The same can be said for Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Google. They are very, very well-known, but do they mean anything to the average punter other than being instantly recognisable?

Marketing speak is what explains to us the purpose of the logo. And businesses are, in essence, all about marketing. The logo is thus essential, because marketing has deemed it to be so, regardless of how meaningful or not it might actually be. So we get the whole deal with logos where businesses are concerned. But what about governments?

One of those very well-known logos, Google, was to whom I turned to enquire of it the purpose of government logos. After three pages didn't reveal any obvious answer, I gave up, stopping only to check out Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Helpfully in English, it explained that the logo was to "enhance the ministry’s corporate governance and to bring about a change in the staff’s mindset, by returning to the original purpose of the government services on health, labour and welfare that meet the public expectations".

Here, at any rate, was some clue as to purpose, if only in the Japanese health ministry.

My reason for asking Google was that, and you are almost certainly unaware of the fact, the Balearic government has a new logo. You will be reassured to learn that this didn't cost top dollar (euro). Only 9,000 euros have been handed over to a Mallorcan designer Lluis Llabrés, of whom we learn that he has worked with "foreign" governments and chef extraordinaire Ferrà Adriá. And what has he come up with? Well, it's a shield, similar to one that has hitherto featured but in a sort of reddy-mauve colour with a diagonal white stripe. Underneath this is "Govern Illes Balears" in a suitably minimalist typeface and then a further stripe but in that mauve colour (I think red-violet might be what a swatch would tell us).

To be honest it looks like something that would be on a football shirt. There is in fact a vague resemblance to Stoke City's badge without any reference to "The Potters", which is probably just as well.

Why, you might ask, has the government felt the necessity for it have a new logo? You will not be surprised to learn that one reason is because the previous one dates from the time of disgraced ex-president Jaume Matas. (One wonders how much that cost, but let's not go there.) Otherwise, there is a practical reason. The Matas version with more heraldic-style shield was multi-coloured. The new one will mean savings on printing costs, which is fair enough.

But then we get to the guff. Greater sustainability might be afforded through less strain being placed on printers' inks, but what do we make of the two colours - the red-violet one and what is basically black - being colours "sustainable and extracted from fruits cultivated on the islands"? Eh? Perhaps this is a reference to certain types of fig. Otherwise, who can say.

Moreover, the new design is "much closer and more open to the citizenship", and the citizens - in an era of digital communications - will be better able to understand it. Perhaps the citizens will be, but the Partido Popular isn't convinced. Why is the government spending nine grand on a new logo when it has vowed that a key objective has been the "rescue" of the citizens? This was a question from the PP's Marga Prohens, who was clearly unaware that this rescue is partly being aided by a logo that is more understandable to them.

But then the PP also wanted to know why it looks like the logo of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which in a way it does, except for the shape, which is football-club shield-shaped.

Will the citizens now all identify with this logo? Will it explain the attributes of the government? Will it encourage loyalty? How can one possibly say? What is the purpose of a government logo? Only the Japanese seem to know.

Exclaiming Passion: Palma's logo

"Passion for enjoying!!" Oh dear, someone has had a bad case of exclamation-mark-itis. This malady is one reserved for those who can't find words to express themselves. Shove one, two, three, ten, several hundred exclamation marks at the end of a word or a sentence and bingo! (sic), you've got yourself some expression. Or maybe you haven't.

Slogans are a different matter, one supposes. They do have to be snappy and short. The exclamation mark might, therefore, come in useful. Alternatively, it might be totally redundant. But as a rule of thumb, the exclamation mark should be used only sparingly, if at all. It betrays either the creator's insecurity in highlighting an inability to adequately convey what is intended to be conveyed or his or her syntactical idleness, or both. It is also often a lazy shorthand for, for instance, pointing out that a joke has been made, when, had a joke really been made, it wouldn't require the use of an exclamation mark. It's that insecurity again. The exclamation mark is a punctuational comfort blanket.

We now have, or Palma has, not one but two exclamation marks. Why two? Why not just one? What do two exclamation marks represent that one by itself doesn't? Indeed, why is there one at all? Palma is exclaiming a "passion for enjoying!!". OMG!! I must get so passionate!! I must get enjoying!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!

There is insecurity in this slogan. The exclamation marks say much. They are there to attempt to convince that there is both passion and "enjoying". But the slogan begs a question of what it is that someone is supposed to enjoy. Rather like Turespaña's "I Need Spain" invited a game of filling in the missing words ("I Need Spain" like I need a massive public finance deficit), so does this one: "passion for enjoying getting drunk", for example.

It's not all bad. The use of the gerund form - and "enjoying" is a gerund - is lifted straight from the copywriter's manual of how to motivate through text. The alternative of "enjoyment" would give a closed statement. Enjoying is open, so in this respect the slogan does at least conform to accepted practice.

But the problem is with the exclamation marks. They serve no purpose other than more as a visual aid as opposed to one that aids meaning. If you removed them, would there be any loss? Personally, I don't think so, and I'm more inclined to think that they are there because the exclamation mark has become so overused that to not have one (or two) would lead to it being conspicuous by its absence. Or they are there because the copywriter simply isn't convinced by the slogan on its own.

The slogan and the logo are all part of Palma's 365 campaign. A competition for the logo's design was announced in December, and this is the result.

A problem that Palma town hall created when it announced the competition was that, whatever the winning design was, it was going to be subject to close scrutiny. This was as a consequence of the San Sebastià poster debacle last year; the design for this had been lifted, and so everyone's trying to find if the 365 one has been as well. To this end, a favourite for having acted as a model is the Eurovision logo. Its heart for its "v" is reckoned to be like the heart of the "m" in Palma. I suppose that there is some similarity, but there may be some clutching at straws in making this comparison. More problematic perhaps is if you turn the logo upside down and the "m" begins to look like different parts of the anatomy rather than the heart it is meant to be.

To come back to the slogan, though, it doesn't just have a problem because of the overused exclamation marks, there is also the issue of the P-word. This has sparked off its own debate in marketing land, as it has become so ubiquitous: passion for this, passion for that, passion for everything. Nancy Friedman**, who has made a career out of how to use words in all manner of contexts, such as marketing, has pointed out that "passion" can be both lazy and uncreative but that what it attempts to convey is emotion. It is passé, but it isn't always easy to find an alternative, especially when, as one presumes to be the case, Palma wants to get all emotional.

Ultimately, though, the slogan and the logo are about what it might mean to the consumer. And does the slogan mean anything? Will people be quoting it? I somewhat doubt that they will be.

** Nancy Friedman blog

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.