Readers react to Telecom logo

Telecom revealed its new logo in a lightshow at the Auckland Ferry Building on Friday. The logo, which looks like a hastily drawn asterisk, is part of a multimillion-dollar push to freshen Telecom's image.

The company's director of brand and marketing, Craig Herbison, said the logo was about self- expression and it was "literally whatever you want it to be".

Herald readers had plenty to say about the logo. Here is a selection of their views:

F Bishop
What a joke - looks like the "design firm" and "focus groups" are on something or on another planet. Make them redundant and get some 4-year-olds to help out. They'd probably do a better job and a sizeable donation to a local playcentre/kindergarten would be less costly than the design firm Telecom employs. I don't think a new logo is going to change anything, except maybe an increase in service costs. What a waste of money. .

Brian Small
I think it represents a mess of telephone cable connected to nothing.

David Kahane
Looks like a hurriedly scribbled asterisk. Is it an atom? An aerial? Radiowave thingies? Its simplicity may be deceptive - it could be a representation of the ability of creative agencies to take the proverbial out of corporate giants and chortle up their designer sleeves all the way to the bank. Perhaps Telecom got a bargain and it was under $1 million.

Pete Bronlund
This is precisely the kind of doodle I begin making whenever talking on the telephone and the conversation has shifted to a point where it is more than obvious I need to hang up and continue with my work.

William Warwick
I think the new logo is an extension of Theresa Gattung's policies as described in that speech in Aussie that they are trying to keep their customers confused. Well done to the marketing team and the new CEO for keeping that policy going. One of New Zealand's largest companies saying that their new logo is whatever you want it to be has to be a joke, surely?


Neil Kennedy
It's rubbish.

Ritchie Sato
The logo sums up to me, an ex-employee of Telecom, the telco perfectly ... a migraine.

Robyn Christie
Brilliant.

BA Tucker
It looks to me that Telecom has got its wires crossed.

David Collins
How about a tangled pile of fibre-optic cables representing the company's dashed hopes of dominating our lives through keeping its stranglehold on broadband infrastructure into the future?

Michael Cocker
If anyone wants a new brand image I'll be happy to create it for them. I'll bet they paid someone more than $100,000 to come up with that thing.

Rod Clements
Enter the new Telecom logo - an awe- inspiring illustration of absolutely nothing in particular. Stumbling through a series of disasters from overcharging and exorbitant salaries to missing the iPhone launch plus the Visionstream employment crisis, this must be surely the icing on the cake for PR relations. Sack the director of brand and marketing immediately and I'll front up with a meaningful logo for a quarter of his salary.

H. Wiseman-Dare
How much did this cost? Their contractors are losing their jobs, we have the worst broadband in the Western World and the most expensive cellphone services. And no doubt Telecom will put up the price of some of its services to pay for the new logo.

Shane Rankin
Looks like the notes a customer services rep takes down when you're complaining about the poor service.

Shaun Wright
The logo is the pinnacle of New Zealand's telecommunications network ... a massive tangle of wires with everything leading into Telecom's massive monopoly. It's also a clear solution to Telecom's marketing strategy, a mass of confusion to get customers to buy into something that they don't quite know what they're getting. My suggestion would have been to do a $ sign as their logo. It would make more sense.

Edwin Knight
I think the new logo looks like the designer's pen was not working so they scribbled until it did.

Tim Scripps
It is obvious what this logo represents - it is a strategy mind map for their mobile phone plan's pricing policy.

Mawera Karetai
It is a perfect representation of the chaos customers experience every time Telecom releases a new product. It reminds me of my frustrated doodling while I am on hold waiting to be answered or waiting for the inept person on the end of the phone to find answers to the problems Telecom creates in my life.

A Rickard
It's obviously a Freudian expression of Telecom's urge to hide information it doesn't want the public to know.