Islington Council rebranded itself with a new controversial logo that cost over £21,000, the Islington Tribune revealed last week. The simplified green symbol will gradually appear on new materials, replacing the original coat of arms, prompted us to take a look at the logos of other controversial council logos across London.
How well do the graphic designs below capture the essence of each borough?
Islington
The new logo, which surfaced in September 2021, retains the “We Serve” motto and the “book of learning” from the previous design, introduced in 2007, but drops the waves, Maltese Cross and crescent symbol. Most noticeably, there is a black “equals” sign below the crest to reflect the council’s commitment to equality, although it has been labelled virtue signalling on social media.
One Twitter user tagged Islington Council and said: “The change is costing money to make it look worse ?… There have to be more important budget priorities right now.” The account tagged Leader of the Council Kaya Comer-Schwartz asking her to reconsider the rebrand. A reply to this tweet pointed out the logo has no reference to Islington and commented: “Two black lines can be interpreted as two items crossed out, or an equal sign(?) … who looked at the old logo and thought ‘that looks oppressive and unequal’?”
Haringey
In 2015, the Evening Standard exposed Haringey Council for spending £86,000 on rebranding. The new logo is the word “Haringey” in a jagged red font, which the council hoped would “communicate who we are today”. The design was ridiculed by locals, who found the expenditure difficult to justify following significant borough budget cuts.
One Twitter user at the time said: “Pls tell me that this is NOT Haringey Council’s new logo? It’s like someone did it in Paint. With their eyes closed.” Another tweeted: “New Haringey Council logo is so bad it looks like a 12-year-old did it. They spent over £80k on it.”
Hackney
Unlike Islington’s and Haringey’s controversial council logos, Hackney’s logo earned the borough money in 2006. Nike paid the council £300,000 in settlement and legal fees, apologising for infringing on copyright. The clothing brand reproduced the H design on t-shirts and vests in its campaign to promote grassroots football. Hackney Council spent the money on sports development for young people.
In the #boroughlogosworldcup on Twitter in 2021, the Hackney logo beat the previous Islington crest with 59.1% of 1,209 votes. Hackney Council tweeted: “Come on Hackney residents, vote for the iconic Hackney H logo! Designed by Alec Davies in the 60s Davies was responsible for the first Lloyds black horse and the John Lewis ampersand.”
Brent
Brent Council replaced its original crest in 2012 with a rainbow graphic next to the word “Brent”. The £2,000 rebrand dropped the council’s existing motto “forward together”. Its multicoloured design aimed to be more representative of Brent as it is today, as the previous logo had not been changed for the borough’s 40-year history to reflect the area’s diversity.
Southwark
The cursive script of Southwark council’s logo barely changed in its 2016 redesign, leading it to join the list of controversial council logos. They spent £15,400 in changing the previous font from blue to grey, adding the website address, reducing the size of the ‘S’ and removing a full stop after the ‘k’ of Southwark. The logo’s design cost £6,819 and implementation cost a further £8,581.
One Twitter user said: “Southwark Council, who slashed its libraries budget, just spent 15k on a logo redesign that removed a full stop.” Another commented: “Southwark Council still rocking this felt tip logo like a GCSE project.”
Enfield
There is a reason behind the mythical creature on Enfield Council’s logo. The red beast has a lion’s body with the head of a fox, the chest of a hound, the front legs of an eagle, and the tail of a wolf. The creature is called an Enfield and can be seen playing football on the crest of Enfield Town FC.
