On the Gazette’s Redesign
Dear Montreal Gazette,
I grew up seeing my dad read the Gazette over breakfast before he drove me to school every weekday. I remember the impression its black-and-white, gothic type logo gave me: “I’m older than your dad, so you should trust me.” No brainer.
On Oct. 21, the Gazette redesigned everything about itself, including its logo. As a graphic designer, I know that when doing a logo redesign, you want to consider the original. That day the Gazette lost over 200 years of history.
I don’t recognize the Gazette anymore. The new logo doesn’t say, “trust me.” Now it just whispers “I’m from Toronto,” or, more specifically, “My design was outsourced to Hamilton,” because it’s a little to shy to admit it. I would be, too.
The sleeve for the first issue of the redesign says “Reimagined for today.” Don’t believe it. It wasn’t “reimagined”—it’s actually a carbon copy of the Ottawa Citizen’s redesign, which was the first Postmedia publication to see its design gutted. The Citizen also lost their iconic logo.
This new Gazette doesn’t deserve the name anymore. Postmedia might as well rename all their publications “Postmedia [insert city name here].”
I hope one-day the Gazette regains its visual independence, because as of today it’s been lost. Montreal, welcome to the new world of print media. I mean, Postmedia.
-Clement Liu, former Link creative director
