Alberta, CA Rebrands Itself

The guy who posted about this new logo for the Canadian province of Alberta admitted that he didn't know much about the location.

I have family in Calgary, Alberta (which is the capital). So, although I'm not a native, I have a little insight into the appropriateness of the logo because I've been traveling there for a while.

Here's the justification the government gives:

Alberta’s new logo has been developed to speak to the freedom to create and the spirit to achieve. Such a promise calls for a unique logo approach. It requires a signature that measures up to the Albertan attitude: open, aspirational, strong, dynamic, and genuine. The essence of people realizing possibilities inspires a signature with personality:

• The line weight is strong.
• The flow and movement in the writing style is dynamic.
• The openness of the letters is inviting and the treatment alludes to our mountains and our prairies.
• The handwriting implies that Albertans are creating and endorsing this brand, this province.

I love visiting, but if the province of Alberta is known for anything it's the cold Canadian Rockies, for hosting the winter Olympics a decade ago, and having a really wealthy population of semi-conservative white people.

I think the new logo is not appropriate because the ideals the province is trying to stand for are a little inconsistent with reality. The old cool colored geometric design is perfect. It's conventional and clean-cut, reminiscent of the people living there. The cool colors remind the viewer of a cooler climate, which it certainly has, and the A in Alberta looks like a mountain or a ski jump. If anyone's heard of Banf, or watched the winter Olympics, then they'd associate the province with skiing and snowy mountains.

Therefore, the sunny, quirky, and (poorly done) modern appeal of the new logo is so conflicting with the old logo that it looses all brand recognition. The new logo associates Alberta with a completely new set of adjectives that I don't necessarily see as fitting.

Although there are new projects and wealth in Alberta because of oil, the new logo does not translate to a land of opportunity; it looks like a tropical vacation resort, which it absolutely isn't.