When Good Logos Go Horribly Wrong

The story: Last April, the United Kingdom's Office of Government Commerce begins a rebranding campaign, spearheaded by London-based design firm, FHD. One of the major pieces of this new visual identity is, of course, a logo. The new logo, a stylish and rather simple affair, is launched with much fanfare to the company and public:




The logo is well-received, and production is started to put it on all sorts of office doo-dads. A spokesman for the OGC reports, "The new identity has been extremely well received, as it presents a very clean, uncluttered and modern identity."

An uncluttered, modern identity.

And then someone turned their head a bit:


O snap.

It turns out that the logo has a bit of a hidden "visual identity" - the kind you don't want your mother to see.

Remarkably, the Office of Government Commerce has chosen to move forward with the logo, and issued the following statement regarding the "gripping" graphic object:

"The proposed version, which you have sent over, has been shared with staff, and is now going through final technical stages. It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters 'OGC' - and is not inappropriate to an organisation that's looking to have a firm grip on government spend!"

(Snatched from The Register, thanks Hutch!)