New York City this week launched its new ‘We ♥ NYC’ logo (We love New York City), a change that somewhat marks the post-pandemic era and is intended to reinforce the unity of New Yorkers, but the new symbol It has not been well received by all.
Until now the hallmark of the Big Apple was ‘I ♥ NY’ (I love New York), work that the designer Milton Glaser (1929 -2020) outlined on the back of an envelope while traveling in a taxi for a 1977 campaign that sought to promote tourism in the state of New York.
The objective of that logo was to highlight both nature and culture in the state and encourage tourism and vacation businessessince at that time the state was going through an economic crisis – not even the lights of the city that never sleeps could be kept on -, there was a high level of unemployment and a record level of violence.
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A more inclusive message
In the souvenir shop where Derech Maddineni works, postcards, magnets and mugs with that mythical logo are sold, but the clerk likes the new version better.
“I like the ‘we’ part because it encompasses the whole world,” Maddineni, who arrived in the Big Apple seven months ago from India, told Efe. “He makes me feel like I’m already a part of this city,” he adds.
Unlike in the 1970s, New York’s tourism industry is now valued at 85 billion dollars and despite the fact that during the pandemic the lights did not go out, the streets, restaurants and hotels emptied, which that made this industry resent a lot.
“This campaign is not just words. It is not a simple slogan. It is not a logo. It is a spirit, a spirit that needs to come alive through each one of us,” stressed the governor of the state of New York, Kathy Hochul.
For his part, the mayor of the city, Eric Adams, a friend of pompous phrases, pointed out that “We Love New York” conveys a clear message: “That we love each other and we love our country.”
Opinions on the logo are divided.
A criticized change
Napoleón Hernández is not convinced by the new logo: he says that, given the growing polarization of American society, this is not the way to solve the problem.
“I think (the new slogan) is on the side of trying to create that union, but it is very superficial, it is not really fixing things in the background,” says the Mexican, who has lived in Brooklyn since 2008.
For Anthony Ptak, who was born more than 50 years ago in Brooklyn and now lives in Manhattan, the new logo says nothing.
“Maybe it means something to someone outside of New York. Maybe that’s why the mayor or whoever proposed this decided that we should make it more plural and universal,” he adds.
On social networks, especially Twitter, the new logo has also been widely criticizedwith a general idea that it is not understood why change what works and is not broken.
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The idea of the designer of the new campaign, Graham Clifford, was to “give a more modern touch” to the well-known symbol, embodied in t-shirts, key rings, stickers and all kinds of “merchandasing”.
Not only the message of the logo was changed, but also the heart – now it has a shadow that gives it more volume, and the font, the new version has a font adapted from the typography of subway signs. EFE
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