There has been a lot said about the new nmra logo that was introduced in Milwaukee this summer. The old logo was clearly identifiable as something railroad(a coupler over a steam loco driver). While I do not have a problem with developing a new more modern logo, I do not think this new logo has the same clear association to railroading the old had. People who are not in the hobby do not associate the new logo with railroads. My wife first suggested the logo looks more like a female body part than something railroad. As a joke last night I photo-shopped the logo taking the left side of the image, inverting it and attaching it to the right side of the logo. The post said nothing about what it represented other than a modification of the logo. I left it to the reader to us their imagination and what do you know, someone complained to the moderator claiming it was adult material. I received the following from the moderator.Your post was deleted.
Reason:
Deleted the thread that had made the NMRA logo anatomically correct (?) Let’s keep it clean please This just reinforces what I have been saying. The NMRA needs to go back to the drawing board. We need a logo that is associated with railroading and is identifiable.
i think that it is because of these kinds of things that corporations pay big bucks to research the names and images of new products to make sure that they don’t have a negative connotation in some language/country.
i think it’s just change for the sake of change and makes little or no sense at all. perhaps there is a hidden agenda in this but does it really matter? how long before some “special edition” box cars show up with the new logo? i will withhold further comment less the thought police find me vulgar and insensitive.
Which I guess is the heart of the matter. It didn’t look like anything to me. I had to read the description to see that it was a wheel on a rail. Asked my 11 year old son what he thought and he didn’t make the train connection either. A logo has to convey a precise message and I don’t think the new one does. If I didn’t know what this was, I wouldn’t have the first clue that NMRA, oops nmra.org, had anything to do with trains. I’m not objecting to a fresher logo, but whatever we use, should send a clear message to the public which this one doesn’t.
New logos and branding are rarely targeted for the existing audience or membership. In a few years the new logo will be recognized as easily as the BNSF Swoosh , “G” instead of Gatoraide, or any host of others that have changed logos (including the US Air Force that I recently retired from). People often complained that the NMRA was stagnant and needed to change. Sometimes making a change such as this can move an organization in a direction they need to go to keep up with the times and changing membership
Yep, the Air Force can’t keep uniforms, logos, and organizations consistent from one CSAF to another anymore. I never thought I’d miss SAC – the REAL Air Force.
OK its THAT is official, the NMRA has gone completely insane, I opened the link took one look and did NOT see anything that resembled wheels on a rail until I read that thats what its supposed to be?, maybe if there was something that looked like the archbars, or journal boxes, or something??? But lets face it, it does indeed look like a womens body part.
I always knew that the NMRA was predominently made up of old men, but apparently its a bunch of dirty old men??? Come on guys, what in the universe is going thru their heads?
Someone PLEASE tell me how this logo is going to do ANYTHING to help negate the common held beleive that model RRs are a bunch wierdos who live in their basements, now we get THIS logo that now indicates we have a fixation with certain womens body parts?
This should be a logo for breast cancer research reconstuctive surgury services or something ANYTHING but model RRs. OMG this is nuts
I would NEVER wear logo this on any cap or shirt, simply because I dont want to get slapped in the face.
What the heck was wrong with the old logo? hint:, if aint broke, DONT fix it.
What you saw is what CSX Toledo thinks the logo SHOULD look like, not what it actually looks like. If you go to the NMRA site you’ll see that it looks like this:
I still like the old one better.
And no, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a shirt or cap that has the new logo on it.
The next thread will probably one complaining that “the hobby is dying” because there are no young members in the nmra… Guess what, they are out there, but what they percieve about an organization is a big part of whether they will join. If they percieve “Old Phart Group”, well???
Progress happens and many many of us in the nmra have been yelling at National Office to “DO SOMETHING” for years. Of course now that they have, “HOW DARE THEY!!!”
I think they tried to “hit the ground running” on this. Time will tell.
73
P.S. - my only thing with the new logo is that the Font is called Howard Fat! Well I am, but they don’t have to rub it in!!! [:-^]
To be honest I didn’t know what the heck it was suppose to be. Once I read Jeffrey’s post I can see it clearly is a wheel on a rail. I like the old one better but I’m sure the new one will grow on me. It ain’t THAT bad, lol.
I agree with Jeffrey. It looks like a wheel on a rail. Either one works for me, although I don’t care for the late 60s/early 70s font of the new logo.
Some logos are pretty straightforward and recognizable, while others are just way out in left field somewhere. The sad thing is that some graphics designing firm got paid big bucks to create something “distinct” that looks very similar to someone else’s logo.
For me, one of the most clever logo designs was the one for Northwest Airlines:
Old logo:
New logo:
On the old design: I like the way the “pointer” functions as the direction indicator (like that on a compass), as well as creates the illusion of the “W” in the “N”. The new design is okay but I think it loses the creativeness of the old one.
At any rate, I don’t lose sleep over these sorts of things…
I would honestly have no problem if there was even just the hint of a journal box or the truck outline, but sheesh! I’m really laughing at this now because I know how regular people are likely to react to it. LOL
Well, we shall see how this “new look” is recieved when the flag is flown in public so to speak, beatcha a dollar we start getting threads like “I was wearing my NMRA cap, and some lady asked me where I could donate money to the brea$t cancer organization named on my cap” ROFLMAO
Too true. Reminds me of an event that happened many,many years ago. NBC spent big bucks redesigning their network logo. Only to discover, after it had been announced with great fanfare, that it legally violated the existing copywrited logo of Nebraska Public Television. NBC had to withraw it and redesign it.
8th AF, 2nd Bomb Wing - B52s, KC135’s and KC10’s [8D]
Back to the NMRA Logo, looks fine to me, don’t understand what all the hoopla is about. Some people just need to complain about something and anything.
I couldn’t find anything on the NMRA website that had the organizational name next to the logo and it would look better with the name. I can see the wheel on the rail and appreciate the web site address, but without the name who will ever know what this is supposed to be.
