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The Wisconsin State Fair may be the Northern Hemisphere’s only August event to have a snowflake as a logo. That was unusual to begin with, but last month the park’s governing board approved a new logo, in which the snowflake is now joined by a swooshy “W,” just in case people didn’t know what state the Wisconsin fair was located in. But professional designers and other observers are rudely panning the new logo.

The crystalline motif was adopted in 1972 to emphasize that State Fair Park, home since 1892 to the 169-year old annual event (Wisconsin’s oldest and largest) is open year-round, and not just for 11 days each summer. The park, after all, has an exposition center, racetrack and other facilities; the 190-acre site has 20 rentable buildings located in the cities of West Allis and Milwaukee. With this in mind, the versatile snowflake was emblazoned on fair buildings and signage and replaced the “O” in the Wisconsin State Fair’s logo.

So things stood until late March, when the snowflake was joined by a stylized “W” in a new logo that was designed (and approved) entirely in-house by Fair Park Board staff. It is now on the park’s website and can be seen on the park’s marquee sign’s new LED screen, “one of the most highly viewed along the I-94 corridor,” as the state fair is wont to note.

According to a press release from Patrice Harris, communications manager, the “fresh and exciting new brand identification for the Fair Park … encompasses both the storied tradition of Wisconsin State Fair Park while embracing the future vision of where the Park is headed …

The logo intertwines the iconic snowflake with the letter ‘W’. The ‘W’ design has dual symbolism representative not only of the State of Wisconsin but also the aim of the Fair Park reaching toward the future, which is shown emblematically with the arm of the ‘W’ reaching forward.”

Now we know.

NewsBuzz asked for comments from members of Milwaukee’s design community and found they were a timid bunch who would only comment anonymously. E-mailing from his Third Ward office, one designer offered this review: “The primary typography lends a professional feel the park may have been lacking previously, while the ‘W’ keeps the more playful feel of the environment it represents. That being said, the form of the ‘W’ in the new logo does nothing to enhance the identity and creates a very amateur feel. Seems like more care could have been given to the ‘W’ and its relationship to the State Park symbol and to creating a more cohesive design.”

Another designer was more to the point, calling it “meaningless, non-professional and amateurish.” Said another: “It looks out of place, just hanging there on the ‘W’. Keep the snowflake.”

One designer was more positive, saying the new logo was “more modern than previously, just fine.”

The commenting public gave its opinion in response to a Don Walker article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These ranged from “absolute garbage” to “kind of a yawner” to a “total rip off of Wisconsin’s logo” to “It’s okay, but that red W looks ridiculous.” There was also speculation as to the new logo’s author, with one person commenting, “I wonder what Marketing firm sold them on this.”

In fact, the design was done entirely in-house. According to the press release, “the new brand identification was concepted and developed by the Fair Park’s Creative Director Andrew Kroening with feedback from representatives of the various Fair Park departments.”

This, alas, brought forth more critics from among the State Fair’s Facebook friends. Judy Fossen, a self-employed graphic designer, wrote:  “With so many talented and affordable professional graphic designers around, there’s no good reason why such a visible Wisconsin institution had to settle for this logo. A simple call-to-pitch to qualified identity development and design professionals would have yielded more attractive/effective results.”

Dan Mueller joined in, pronouncing the logo “ugly” and asking, “Was there input from the public on this new design or did the corporation just choose it?”

We directed this question to Harris, who said, “The new look was submitted to the Fair Park Board of Directors. We did not submit it to the Governor’s office,” adding, “it was determined that we needed to re-brand the Fair Park after we assumed operation of both the Milwaukee Mile and the Exposition Center to unify all of the facilities under one image, one brand.”

A cursory review of other state fair park logos, however, did not bowl us over. You’ll find many logos incorporating a ferris wheel (Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio) and quite a few using flags (Oregon, Indiana, Illinois). Florida has a swirly sun that replaces the “o” in the state name.  Oklahoma uses a horse. Pennsylvania uses, we kid you not, some bundled grain.

With the exception of the flags, most of these wouldn’t work year round, which was the Wisconsin State Fair’s objective. No one can deny the new logo will work equally well – or not – on every day of the year.

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