The original Good Sam logo was a hit - and a classic. Never mess with success!
Lame graphic design sucks. And when it comes to your company's logo, don't let talentless people design your new one. That is all I can think of as to why the new Good Sam logo is so, well soulless the way those happy-fakey-smiley religious nutjobs are. Whoever designed it, has no talent - or soul.
Take a look at the "New" Good Sam. (Disturbing Image Warning!):
What is wrong with this picture? Several things.
At first, it appears they just took the Good Sam logo and made it into a cartoon character. But several things were changed along the way to make this image disturbing:
1. Symmetrical Face: The original Good Sam face was asymmetrical, and asymmetrical faces are more interesting and attractive. Symmetrical faces are creepy. If you look at yourself in a half-mirror (on end) it will make your facial image into two halves of one side - and it looks creepy weird. And that is what happened here. Whatever the new Good Sam is, he ain't human!
2. The Open Mouth. The original Good Sam has a smiling but closed mouth. He is content and happy. The new Good Sam is a mouth-breather, and apparently has no teeth to boot. In addition, his mouth opens way too far (almost to his ears) and makes sharp points at the ends (which disrupt the image and scare small children, literally. Clowns know this and rarely use sharp edges in their makeup designs).
3. The Eyes: Are the original Good Sam's eyes closed (in modesty) or open? It is hard to tell. Like Little Orphan Annie, he has no pupils. The new Good Sam has oval eyes that are wide open in shock - as if he is seeing his RV plunge off a cliff. He seems to be in a perpetual state of shock and surprise, instead of the calm self-assuredness of the old Good Sam.
4. The Hair: Good Sam has his hair parted clearly on the side, with this hair making a pompador-like wave across the top - perhaps even a comb-over. The New Sam has his hair parted far closer to the middle - far more symmetrical and not the same hair. He doesn't even look like the image on his own shirt!
Taken altogether, the new logo is disturbing - and unrecognizable as "Good Sam" Even the nose is wrong. And adding a body and waving four-finger hand isn't helping any.
So why would you do this? Why do people feel they need to "update" a classic logo? Would you "update" Bugs Bunny to the latest Japanese Anime styling? Of course not. But the new Good Sam club felt this was necessary.
Part of this is that they wanted to make him into a 3-D body suit that could be worn by a person:
Wow, this is even worse than the image above.
When made into a fluffy plush character, the image gets even worse. Notice how the face is almost flat, and his nose is upturned like the Michael Jackson Nose #4. A far cry from the huge proboscis that the original Good Sam sported. Was the old Good Sam looking too Jewish, perhaps? The new Good Sam looks more like a Mormon missionary.
And the smile is no longer the modest, self-assured smile of a Good Samaritan, but this idiot open-mouth grin.
The head is rounder, too, missing the two-shape design of the original (rectangular upper part, spade-shaped lower part). It just looks like some generic white guy.
Unfortunately, this logo change is just another example of how Affinity Marketing is taking the Good Sam club in disturbing new directions, as I have noted in the past. It no longer feels like a club, but a major multinational corporation.
Dump the new Good Sam! And I hope you get your money back from the graphic designer who designed him. Stick with a classic - the original Good Sam!
No comments:
Post a Comment