Hey The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the consensus is in and your new logo sucks!

Comments from my Facebook friends:
“GAG, the old logo was OK, but the new one has even less appeal.”
“Haha, or a zit! Ugh, what is the bump anyways?? Does the museum have a bump in it’s design somewhere!? They should have incorporated something iconic of the museum whether out-of-state visitors get it or not, like the clock, or something like that!”
“Looks like a crocodile eye or a terrible skateboard ramp. Either way, I expect record attendance and season pass purchases any minute now.”
“Very dated typography and very conservative.”
“I vote a big thumbs down on this change. Makes no sense. It doesn’t look very inviting as far as a museum geared towards children. Fail.”
“It looks like a stodgy business logo. Not kid-friendly at all. Boo.”
And to my own comments:
I’ll preface this by saying that I love the The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and the logo won’t deter me from personally visiting, but…
Some “marketing” people really don’t get “branding” at all. Yes, update logos once in a while if/when necessary, but not something like this. (UPS is a good example of how to do it right.)
It certainly doesn’t scream “Fun” and I’m wondering if they did any market research with this because I’ve not heard anyone say they really like it. Even my 6 year old tells me “It looks like a mountain or hill & it’s boring to look at all day.” Way to market to your target audience!
Personally if I were in charge of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis I’d have a nice chat with the creative director and the marketing team. Bottom line, you want something that brings in your target audience, especially out-of-town visitors. While logos don’t always need to give a feel for what the business is about (their main purpose is branding), in this case that should be important. And by all means you don’t drastically change them every 15-20 years.
But I digress and am just happy that’s not something I’m responsible for.