March 14 at 3:00 pm marked the close of the Empire State Development Corporation's request for proposals (RFP) that "restore the I LOVE NEW YORK campaign to primacy among state tourism campaigns." In all likelihood, this deadline was Eastern Time.
Paradoxically, this (quoted verbatim) section of the request contains the precise reason these "restoration" efforts are likely to fail. (You can download the PDF in all its vague glory.)
Today the I Love NY logo is everywhere: recognizable and re-mixed. It so naturally represents its constituency—in both design and attitude—that one could assume the slogan had been carved into a tree ten minutes after the Dutch exchanged those beads. But the world's most well-known geo-logo, despite its seemingly punk, grass-roots credentials, is really the very contrived product of one Milton Glaser, who at the time was a designer for the Wells Rich Greene agency. Furthermore, when the logo was chosen in 1977, the idea of loving New York (City especially) was a bit ironic. A bankrupt metropolis abandoned to "drop dead," the idea of either tourists or residents loving New York was as much wishful thinking as truth.
Read the rest of this interesting look at branding here.
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