It was a “contemporary logo” designed by an in-house University of California team and started being used about 6 months ago. There have been many objections but the “flushing toilet” image – once invoked – is the most enduring!!
It has been a bit of a disaster and is now being withdrawn.
Old and new logos UC
One student posted a comment at The Daily Californian, the student newspaper at the University of California at Berkeley, comparing the new logo for the University of California System to the loading icon on YouTube. Another posted: “That was what I was thinking! Then someone had to ruin it for me with the toilet flushing comments, which I now cannot unsee….”
Either way, the commenters (and thousands of others) are giving a failing grade to the new logo, and calling for the university to abandon it. The university has until now used its original seal, dating to 1868, featuring an open book and the words “let there be light.” The new seal is theoretically supposed to show a C inside a U.
The logo is being withdrawn but it will take a little time to be phased out.
By suspending further use of its much-maligned new logo, University of California officials hope to get beyond the controversy. …..
But the controversial logo will not disappear immediately. The changeover has begun on websites, although the modern graphic will remain on paper materials already printed and those in production. The change “is not going to happen overnight. It’s not like we can flip a switch,” said Jason Simon, the UC system’s director of marketing communication.
Simon said that though he was disappointed by the negative reaction to the logo, “it was time to move on” and focus on more important issues facing the 10-campus university system.
Opponents had complained that the large “U” — which surrounded a fading “C” — was ugly, incomprehensible and made the university seem like a crass PR machine. They lobbied for the restoration of UC’s century-old seal, with its “Let There Be Light” motto, a drawing of an open book and the 1868 date of the system’s founding.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a voting member of the UC Board of Regents, had joined that chorus — as did whoever tweets for Gov. Jerry Brown‘s dog, Sutter.
“Awesome victory,” wrote one contributor to a Facebook petition formed to oppose the logo. “For once in government, common sense prevailed,” another petitioner wrote Friday.
The k2p blog 