03 Mar 2003 | f5 said...

Aaaaaa!

What are those? I'm trying to figure out what a fencing sword has to do with homeland security.

03 Mar 2003 | pk said...

Is this a joke or is this fo real?

03 Mar 2003 | Ryan said...

See the footer, find a link to the creators site, notice a comment on his sidebar calling it the most "official" satire site you'll ever find.. ( link)

03 Mar 2003 | Darrel said...

I'm dissapointed. These all look like sincere entries. It seems as if everyone missed the sarcasm.

Or maybe I just read the sarcasm myself.

Regardless, these are really seals more the logos. As someone working in the gov sector at the moment, I really don't get the seal thing. Hey! We're a gov agancy. We need our logo to be round...with as many cliched symbols as you can fit into it.

03 Mar 2003 | freejoe76 said...

For reference, many people at first believed as you do (and I did) that it was a joke. ( me-fi comments w/ links to joke entries )

However, after the first week or so, people started sending the logo / seals in. And all but one or two were quite serious. ( DHS entries )

So, now, I believe in it ( check the most recent news, "Also, the entries for the Department of Homeland Security logo contest have been posted. You might notice I called it a satire site below -- I changed my mind. It's not anymore." ).

I still think the words on the front page are some of the best I've put down, and it probably wouldn't have made so much of a splash otherwise.

And as for the logo vs. seal debate, that's a very good question. I wonder why the government has never addressed it before. Actually, I don't. But check this comment I got from a man who wasn't a designer but had some pretty decent ideas about what and what shouldn't be a part of the DHS design.

03 Mar 2003 | Darrel said...

And as for the logo vs. seal debate, that's a very good question. I wonder why the government has never addressed it before.

Typically because visual communications are nowhere on the radar in terms of it being a business need for gov agencies.

Plus the design by committee issue.

Well, it's an interesting turn about. Why do you think people submitted serious logos? Did they misread the humour? Did they reben against it?

03 Mar 2003 | freejoe76 said...

Did they misread the humour?
I don't think they really read it. I think preconceived notions that this was legit (aided by a professional look + feel) blocked out the notion that it might not be a serious endeavor. A general case of "you look for what you want to see".

But, in the end, there was still a deadline and an email address to submit to. And they got what they wanted to see, a real-life logo contest. Any harm done? No.

Now, the real test will be to get this into Tom Ridge's hands.

04 Mar 2003 | alisha said...

my favorite is the one where the big eagle is swooping down to capture the little home in his claws and fly away.

04 Mar 2003 | stone said...

Government seals take their historical cues from from medieval european heraldry. For heraldry, cheap mass-production in multiple media was never a big issue, and traditional symbols signified the prestige of the office. Modern logos take their historical cues from Paul Rand, who thought different : )

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