Hello. This is an important announcement for all FIRST Robotics Competition teams. Please share this information with the rest of your team in a timely manner.
Greetings Teams:
As we strive to build and maintain a powerful visual identify for FIRST, we are pleased to introduce an evolution of the FIRST logo.
Full details are available on our website at http://www.usfirst.org/about/news/newlogo2004.htm including:
Here’s the new logo…
Warning. Preliminary response. I have not read the link yet.
Oh, my. I think that is absolutely aweful
I will edit this post when I read the link
EDIT: I have read that link and I still stand behind what I have said. The old logo looked professional. It had class. This looks like something from a cartoon. I don’t like it. Personally, I may make use of the entire 12 month transistion period, if you know what I mean.
The S and T look … off. Maybe its just an illusion…
http://www.usfirst.org/4vol/resourcectr/downloads/FIRSTlogoR_color_rgb.jpg
Not to hurt anyone’s feelings, but it’s just plain uninviting, and bland.
I really can’t think of a better way to put it.
I am usual not so critical, but I just don’t like the logo, and I think it was a wrong move to change it just before a season. It should have been released during the championship.
I have to say I don’t really like this evolution at all. Not because it is different, but because it is ugly. No big deal, its just a logo.
I have to agree, the logo is a rather poor substitute for the existing one. On a white background, the circle fades out of existence without an outline.
I hadn’t even noticed that. I guess it just shows that with how often I see that shape, my brain kind of just fills in the missing lines.
I think the kerning is a bit off. The S and T are too close together and it makes them look like they are seperate from FIR. Actually, from the blown up picture, I think the kerning needed to be tweaked on all the letters a bit. The I and R look too seperated as well.
I’m not entirely sure why the logo needed to change, but I think this is an attempt to “modernize” the FIRST logo. I think the original had a kind of classic look with the line art style. I also think the original had 15 years of advertising and recognition behind it, so a change to it should have been a bit smaller. Then again, I’m just an opinionated ex-student, so I don’t know the logic that actually went into this decision.
Mostly, I think this will be tough on teams and RDs that have a goodly amount of material with the old logo that probably isn’t going to get replaced in the next year. Plus, this design looks a little rougher on people that screen print T-shirts. The gray is just one more color and you’ll have a heck of a time lining it up with the other colors.
I just realized something. This means no more classic gray FIRST shirts. I guess I’ll have to hoard and cherish the limited supply I have at the moment.
I FEAR CHANGE!!!
Just kidding… But seriously, I hope no one spent a lot of time on this new one. :ahh: It looks more aimed at a kid’s competition. Like, Maybe FLL?
Also, as a former team advisor said about the Enron logo: It’s feng shui is off. It is standing precariously on only one tip. The tip from the Square, and it looks like it will fall… As did Enron’s logo, and thus corporation.
CLASSICS NEVER DIE!!
http://www.logoloc.com/first/images/13330.lg.jpg
I wonder if those are gonna be on sale now? w00t!
OMG! :eek:
breathing stopped…breathing starts again
Ah…
it is different…
it’s a little retro looking…
Ah… it has greater international appeal! Qui? Si? Ho? Da?
maybe they are only doing this to make us realise how great the other logo was. They’ll use this new one for a while, then go back to the old one that everyone knows and loves, and call it “retro”…i am going to choose to beleive that…
Wow, I am not a fan of the new logo. In plain terms I think it sucks! I hope that first reads these and reconsiders. The old logo looks so much more professional, the new logo is just wrong.
So the new logo is like New Coke? 
Last time they changed the logo (last year or the year before), the edit was a minor one, which some people favored and some opposed.
This time, I can’t see any praise for the new logo. The old one was clean, elegant, and extremely effective. The message I got from it was that from the simplest building blocks of shapes, the triangle, circle, and square, anything that could be imagined could be built. The straight-line approach and the bold lines and colors on them indicated simplicity, not a new “suaveness”. I will continue to use the old logo whenever and wherever I need to use a logo.
I kind of like the logo. It’s just more different and FIRST has become warped – in a good way. =D
grumble Now I need to change my avatar… grumble
To me, that looks like a logo FIRST would have started with in '92. I really liked the “old” logo. The new one is way to plain and needs some “pop” to it and really grab attention.
-Kyle
Just my thoughts
To start, I am not saying whether I like it or not. I would like to shed some light from the bits & pieces I know of the re-branding process, however.
Anyway, I really think we should give the re-branding some time to grow on us. There must be a very good reason for the change, and I am sure that they spent lots of time and money to come to this. Even though we may have differing opinions on it from HQ, if they did the process like it is normally done, the re-branding would include staff from all areas of the organization (FRC, FLL, etc…), including both types of stakeholders (sponsors and participants).
That’s a lot of people that are standing behind this change. They would not put it out there as their final decision unless they believed in it.
The reaction we are getting here reminds me when I received an email last June from the Babson President announcing to the college their new logo (attached below: the old one is on the left). They had a short email announcing the logo, and then explained the reasonings behind the changes later on. Even though I was not a fan of it to start, a lot of the changes made sense after I heard the thought process behind it.
Re-branding is risky business. It could be a hit, or it could flop like New Coke. I’m hoping a more thorough explanation for the changes will be released before I make a definitive opinion.
PS - Who remembers when they officially changed from “US FIRST” to “FIRST”? That was a great marketing move.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the names of the fonts are for the old logo, and the new logo?
I would really like to know… 
Excellent post Jess. I don’t think we should make up our mind just yet. There is always two sides to a story. Until we know the full story behind this change, we shouldn’t speak ill of it based entirely on our initial reaction to the new logo.
FIRST have always tried their best to improve the program for the sake of our future. There might have been mistakes in the past, but I am willing to give FIRST the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, maybe after hours and hours of PR meeting, they really do think this new logo will improve the organization’s image and make it easier to promote it to the main stream.
This decision has been made. It was a difficult one, but they made it. You don’t just randomly change the logo one day and mess around with it whenever you feel like. They are also trying to be understanding of this change on everybody across the country, and trying to get through this transition as smoothly as possible.
Knowing FIRST for years, I know they WILL listen to the people and they DO care about our opinion. So, for now, let’s just give them our sincere, constructive opinion, and see where they are going with it. If you don’t like the new logo, point out exactly why, and I am sure FIRST will take your comments into full consideration before they decide anything else.
In general, I agree that the logo is too different. I’ve only been involved in two competitions before the one that starts in January, but still.
The logo could do with a little more definition on the shapes, especialy the circle. Also, the font that FIRST is written in could be changed for the better, and the spacing of the letters could be worked on a little bit.
$0.02
Squirrel
<edit>
Ok, so maybe this was repetition, or maybe it’s emphasis. Can this be made into a poll, maybe the new logo vs the old logo?
</edit>