joshedwards.com » things that I don’t like

Ugly New CMP Logo

Josh — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

I opened up my Central Maine Power bill last night (and yes, the bill is higher with these new smart meters) and found an ugly new logo inside.

Not that the old logo was stellar, but it was classic in a kind of Paul Rand way. “Paul Rand-lite”, perhaps.

Apparently the new logo is an alignment with the logo of parent company Iberdrola USA.

In fact, I didn’t even realize that Energy East had been renamed “Iberdrola USA”, and that apparently happened in December of 2009. Then again, I haven’t paid too much attention to my energy company, I suppose.

All-in-all it’s too bad that yet another distinct logo is going by the wayside for something that’s got ugly gradients and no silhouetting. And is that a drop of sunshine? Really?!

Civil War Myths

Josh — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:46:52 +0000

Nothing steams me more than when people re-write history for their own nefarious purposes. Sure, much of history is subjective, and it generally is written by the victors, but some things are just flat-out truths. Facts are facts.

That’s why I enjoyed this Washington Post article: “Five myths about why the South seceded.”

Because as we get closer to April and the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter we’re going to see more of this revisionist bullshit.

Insect Food

Josh — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:00:52 +0000

I know this idea makes sense on a rational level, but still, yuk: “Insects could be the key to meeting food needs of growing global population.”

Key quote:

“We’re looking at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more recognisable to western palates.”

Recognizable, but I’ll take a burger, thanks!

United Continental Logo

Josh — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:35:08 +0000

Recently United and Continental Airlines announced they were merging.

Frankly I didn’t care much about the merger until I saw this photo:

Look at the abomination of a logo on the step-and-repeat banner behind them!

They mashed up the classic United logo (designed by Saul Bass, no less) with the couldn’t-be-anymore-generic Continental logo!

I bet they didn’t even get a graphic designer’s input, they just had some temp retype “United” and bingo, problem solved!

So that’s one more logo to add to my yet-unbuilt “Logo Graveyard” website.

What a waste.