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Penn State Plays It Safe


njmeadowlanders

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As a recent Penn State graduate, I receive the Penn Stater, the alumni magazine every couple of months. I don't really read it, but this little section caught my attention:

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Now, the move has been creeping in over the past couple of years. However, I think this is a terrible mistake.

Helvetica is so unique, it makes a bold statement. Helvetica screams "Penn State". Sarcasm is nice too.

Yes, the custom font may be a bit dated, but Helvetica is so bland and says "safe route" and "unoriginal". I may have to go buy some tees before the font is gone. This is really disappointing.

At least the chipmunk isn't going anywhere.

Oh yeah, that 1996 update...never liked it, glad that will be 100% gone.

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It could be worse. Penn State could have pulled an Auburn or a Detroit Lions and gone on a Copperplate binge.

This may retroactively explain why the baselines of the Bryce Jordan Center changed.

current

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former

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The '96 update was unnecessary and the fan base seemed to never embrace it anyway.

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Seriously? It already looks dated. And I love Helvetica. They could have done something classic that had at least a little bit of personality.

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I agree that the old font was dated, but moving to Helvetica? Extremely lazy. At least go with something more stylized, even if you are making it simple. Something even as simple as a Myriad style sans-serif would be better than Helvetica.

I kinda like the idea of PSU going to Helvetica. It does send a message that: At Penn State we don't have a trademarked workmark, we don't have 15 different uniforms for the football program, we don't have people wearing our t-shirts because the logo looks 'cool'. We are Penn State, we are here to do a job, and then go home. 'Nuff said.

Not to mention Helvetica is used, and reconized, internationally just like Penn State.

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Seriously? It already looks dated. And I love Helvetica. They could have done something classic that had at least a little bit of personality.

Exactly. We don't have to wait 20 years to see if it looks dated, because it already looks like a corporate logo from 1986. A good corporate logo from 1986, but a very of-its-time logo from 23 years ago nonetheless.

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All these uber-simplistic logos and type treatments are going to look dated in 10 years as well. I'm getting tired of people claiming just cause its simple its timeless. 5 years ago people thought web 2.0 was timeless. Now its a punchline.

I love simple design...right now...but its already going away. Hand drawn logos and graphics are making a comeback in a big way.

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I keep waiting for someone to say 'Guys, this was in the Onion!'

Agreed. The new logo/wordmark combo looks as if someone typed the phrase " Penn State Nittany Lions" in Microsoft Word, then pasted a copy of the chipmunk next to it. (*Wait, I'll highlight this part of the text, then reduce the font size. That'll look better*) It doesn't even look like something that would have been generated by the university.

Count me as one of the apparently few fans of the 1996 logo set. I'll miss it, even if it wasn't used very much.

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I usually agree with anything Penn State (Love the plain jerseys, logos etc.) but this is weak. The 1996 logo was nice, but didnt fit the simplicity of Penn State football for the most part, so I like that they went back to the other logo, but the font is just bad. As least make the font somewhat stylized so that we can tell that it is a logo and not just someone typing...

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It's Penn State. I like it. Any other team it would look silly, but Penn State is the Center for Understated Design. I would have gone with a rounded Athletic font like they now use in the endzones at Beaver Stadium, but that's the only comment i really have to make about this.

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Helvetica minimalism is so 1970s. They'd know that if they watched Helvetica. Now Trade Gothic, that's clean simplicity for my generation.

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