Halfway through January and that means being part of the humid human soup that is Brisbane, and the Tennis on Seven with its shiny new Australian Open Tennis Logo.
Although, much like Channel Nein’s Summer of Cricket, we’re not really that interested. Tennis is a bit dull. If Novak Djokovic is the biggest personality in the sport (Good personalities – no Jerks) then it’s all yours.
You can also have the hype of which of the Tennis Jerks has disappointed or embarrassed themselves the most, or which opponent will knock Sam Stosur out of the second round.
All yours too is the coverage on Channel Seven. Whilst not as bad as Channel Nein, the constant promos which ruined what little interest we had in the Olympics and it reaches a new level of annoyance through the tennis. Mainly due to My Kitchen Rules. Pete Evans and his whatever diet and being the Kick Kyrgios of Cooking, and the painful premise of the show itself. Cook, Cry, Repeat.
In fact we were ready to ignore this year’s edition until we came across the new Australian Open logo.
Well once we worked out what it was.
It was yet another example of a sport taking itself too seriously, and allowing white shoed, gelled, marketing boffins to overplay the importance of something so miniscule as a logo.
Doing some digging, we came across the official statement about the origins of the new Australian Open Tennis logo.
Our favourites bits from the blog post from the creators Landor includes:
“The result is a dynamic new look that will give us the flexibility to engage more deeply with our fans, partners and the players. It’s fresh, fun and often playful – just like the Australian Open itself.”
“So while the brand needed to remain simple and recognisable, it also needed to be given the flexibility to be agile – adapting and responding to the environment.”
“We wanted to create a living system which could animate and move in accordance with the dynamic of the game itself”
“The simplicity of the mark gives it the license to do almost anything. It’s not only a short hand to the Australian Open, it’s a mark that is a timeless icon that can be the vehicle of constant reinvention,”
That last Bucket O’ Wank was the final straw. It turned from a Meh to this very gripe.
It is a fuck**g logo. It does not have a license to do anything, or if so, give it a weapons license and allow it to shoot it self in the head. It is not a “Living System”, which is the biggest load of tripe since the last time Channel Nein offered up a KFC Trivia on themselves.
As for a vehicle of constant reinvention. Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft.
And you just know, a brigade of marketing graduates and white shoe shufflers have probably spent a minimum of $500K to give themselves that pat on the back.
Yes we get it, sport is a more of a business these days. But who can say they have ever been interested about a logo. Perhaps the launching of a new one is mildly interesting for the few month or so. But a new Australian Open Tennis logo, is hardly going to bring the kids to the Tennis, excite Generation X, or be cared about by anyone over 50.
The new EPL logo is an example. The first viewing is met with a Hmmm. Followed in Week 2 with a Meh, and then completely ignored when the actual action really kicks off.
The Big Bash has currently captured the imagination of the Australian public, and it has nothing to do with a logo. It has a quality product with quality people involved, and a pretty fair job, given how bloody boring cricket can be to the non-cricket believer.
They certainly don’t need to kid themselves to come up with a logo like the new Australian Open Tennis logo.
Especially something with a simplified A and O. The only time we’ve ever been excited about AO was a good few decades ago when AO was the old MA on TV, and one could hope for a small amount casual nudity or swimming pool scene on a post midnight movie or anything after 9pm on SBS. Beat you, I didn’t know we were racing. That kind of gold.
But it is what it is, and there’ll be a study somewhere that will prove that the new Australian Open Tennis logo is a living system and is fresh, fun and often playful, or will get thousands more through the gate or engaged on social media. (Although Social Media did cane it on its debut) But like the Tennis, and Nein’s Summer of Cricket we’ll be ignoring it anyway.
[…] to our previous rant about how organisers of the Australian Tennis Open thought their new logo would revolutionise sporting history, the kind of garbage wheeled out by the people who run the game really gets our goat, and […]