A really, really nice logo
When we last wrote about the University of Colorado’s $785,000 branding/ marketing study in April, the results were already nine months late. (CU’s contract with consultant Landor contained a deadline of June 30, 2009.)
Back then, despite a Boulder Weekly open records request, CU officials refused to cough up the logos and other artwork that the consultant had created, calling it “work product” that hadn’t yet been approved by the Board of Regents.
Now it’s nine months later, and CU has finally released this long-awaited logo. We were really expecting something impressive, considering how long it took and how much money was spent. Maybe a new, intricate, interlocking CU in 3-D, embossed in real gold?
Um, no. The new logo looks pretty much like the old one. And the groundbreaking change in university nomenclature? Calling CU-Boulder the “University of Colorado Boulder.” Yes, that’s right, no hyphen, no “at,” no comma. You would have to pay even more if you actually wanted to hire people who know how to use the English language, apparently.
Oh, sure, CU officials will bray about how no tax dollars or tuition revenue were used to pay for the project, and about all of the other great “deliverables” they got for that price tag, like an “identity standards manual.” Ooooh. Aaaah.
The cash and time wasted on this project proves that image is everything, but it just looks bad to spend 28 months and $785,000 on this at a time when tuition continues to skyrocket and the university could be facing another deep budget cut.
As former Regent Tom Lucero put it when we interviewed him last April, “We could have used those dollars elsewhere.”
Scott’s shenanigans so soon?
It was just a matter of time before someone caught new Secretary of State Scott Gessler in a conflict of interest, but we didn’t think it would happen this quickly, just a few weeks into his term.
Gessler wants to moonlight with his former law firm, which wouldn’t be such a big deal if that firm weren’t so active in the state’s election laws. Gessler says he needs the side work because his Secretary of State gig only pays about $68,000 a year. Didn’t he know the salary before he ran for office?
Gessler and his cronies have been involved in some campaign tactics around the state that have been questionable, to say the least. Even in Boulder County. He was the attorney representing the right-wing group that sued the city of Longmont over campaign transparency regulations aimed at disclosing candidates’ donors. Gessler also represented Western Tradition Partnership, a conservative group that runs attack campaigns against Democrats and bankrolled the dirty tactics in the Longmont City Council race between Katie Witt and Karen Benker. We pointed all of this out in our endorsement of his opponent in last fall’s election, Bernie Buescher, but Colorado voters elected Gessler anyway, inexplicably.
Now Gessler wants to work 20 hours a week for the very firm in which he did a lot of his dirty work. The problem is, his primary job now is to oversee the state’s elections.
Keep a close eye on this guy.
Model mammaries
Victoria’s Secret supermodel Miranda Kerr gave birth on Jan. 6 to a 9-pound, 12-ounce baby boy, whom she and hubby Orlando Bloom named Flynn. On Jan. 18, the happy new mother posted a photograph of her nursing her newborn on her blog at KORA Organics. And the blogosphere exploded.
The photograph is sweet. The side of Kerr’s breast is visible, but the rest is blocked by her baby’s head. No nipple. Still, haters ranted that Kerr should have kept the photo private because it was immodest and inappropriate.
Has the world gone insane? Kerr is a Victoria’s Secret model. Her day job consists of being photographed while naked or nearly naked. Until Jan. 18, it seemed the world couldn’t get enough of Kerr’s breasts. But the moment she feeds her baby — the most important function of the female breast — it’s a scandal. How absurd!
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