Whitney Museum Logo Redesign Channels Homer Simpson

Doh!

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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We should start by acknowledging that the old Whitney Museum branding (created thirteen years ago by Abbot Miller of Pentagram) was pretty lame and well overdue for a facelift. The logo was simply the word "Whitney" in a blocky, unattractive typeface that surely wasn't getting more visitors in the door. Now the museum has unveiled an equally unattractive, more minimal design known as the "responsive W." Designed by Experimental Jetset, the new logo coincides with the construction of the new Whitney building set to open in 2015 and features a graphic of a stylized letter "W." The "responsive W" is said to be inspired by the Whitney's "ever-changing nature" and the way it "responds to art," whatever that means.

The logo looks exactly like an inverted drawing of the hair over Homer Simpson's ear, drawn to represent the initials of his creator, Matt Groening, and Homer clearly wore it best. Minimalism in graphic design is not always best and the Whitney just proved it. Not only is the skinny "W" not that interesting, but it's weird. In the promo shots you can see that the logo stretches, leans, and does other strange things for no reason. Maybe they watched a particularly windy episode of the Simpsons? Who knows, we just hope this logo doesn't exist for thirteen years like the last one.

[via Whitney]

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