Redesigning the SAAME logo
A desire has been expressed to update, or completely change the SAAME logo.
NB: This is a subject that has been continually brought up, since the very beginnings of SAAME, and no-one has managed to come up with an acceptable change.
This is my (Tim's) input on the situation:
To have someone design a new logo for us, you need to give them some parameters to start working on, since someone has to figure out what will it look like. To begin with you need to state what should it represent.
e.g. You could give a design brief saying: It should be symbolic of the media (new and old). It should also symbolise education (teachers & students). Should it represent analytic or critical thought? That nothing in the media should simply be taken at face value.
Even if you don't make the logo symbolic, or representative, it needs to be memorable, and for people to remember that it's your logo. In essence, it's advertising; and it has to work.
And there's the practical issues about a logo (regardless of what it looks like), that it should be printable in plain black and white (that a simple home computer printer can manage), as well as whatever else looks better on the web and professional printing. It should work as a small symbol, and look good as a larger logo. And you need to be free from copyright encumbrances.
I don't particularly mind some aspects of the old logo (the figure, “Sammy,” filming the butterfly), and you can interpret it in more than one way. You have the obvious filmmaker filming. And, at a stretch, you can consider the butterfly subject in the context of the philosophical notion of “the butterfly effect” (where the tiny beating wings of a butterfly, can cause a chain reaction that has a profound effect on something else). And to some, the picture of a simple free butterfly might represent the opposite of censorship. Once again, a rather concerning issue about the media, at the moment.
However, it ignores all other types of media (radio, print, web, social media, etc), and says nothing about education.
I quite like the idea of keeping the butterfly, for reasons I've just mentioned above, but by itself is very abstract, and it's probably more suggestive of feminine products. But drawn on a larger scale, could incorporate some symbols within the wing patterns.
I don't particularly like the idea of using the image currently at the top of MEET facebook group (displayed below). It has a George Orwell's “Big Brother” vibe to it, as well as looking like it's part of a “don't get caught doing something stupid on the web” campaign. It's somewhat creepy and disturbing. And, to me, it doesn't suggest any correlation with Media Education.
As an alternative to a logo, there are situations where it could be better to just use the name SAAME using an attractive font, such as branding on an event where you can only print one thing: If nobody knows your logo, then it's just a random symbol that doesn't help you in any way. But your name can be researched. And if you surround it with the other bits from our internet domain name, then people know exactly how to find out more about us. For example, doing this kind of thing (though picking a nicer looking font), with the name typed much bigger than the surrounding bits:
Below are examples of the original logo (as a monochrome lithograph), and a couple of tweaks to it (colourised, and changing the image of the camera in the logo), as supplied by Grant.
And another design submitted by Grant:
Responses:
- suggestive of violence
A submission from Harry:
