New York- New York City launched its new “We ♥ NYC” logo this week, a change that somewhat marks the post-pandemic era and is meant to strengthen the unity of New Yorkers, but the new symbol has not been well received by all.
Until now, the emblem of the Big Apple was “I ♥ NY” (“I love New York”), a work that the designer Milton Glaser (1929 -2020), outlined on the back of an envelope while traveling in a taxi for a campaign of 1977 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 businesses, since at that time the state was going through an economic crisis -you couldn’t even keep the lights of the city on never sleeps – there was high 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. “It 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, and while the lights didn’t go out during the pandemic, the streets, restaurants, and hotels emptied, making resent this industry 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 to life through each one of us,” New York State Governor Kathy Hochul stressed at the presentation of the new logo.
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.”
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. Perhaps that is 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 criticized, with a general idea that it is not understood why change what works and is not broken.
The designer of the new campaign, Graham Clifford, the idea 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 the subway signs-.
