Why the vitriolic reaction to the Olive Garden logo? Why the steaming anger shown by the reviewers of this logo design? Their vigorous hate belies something deeper than just mediocre design. We will venture a guess that it goes beyond the actual design of it, but lies in a nuance of the typeface we will reveal at the end of this post.
Rather than comment on the dire business climate of casual dining, we must chime in on the design since it’s one we will apparently live with if Olive Garden doesn’t actually go under. It has been likened to a child’s cursive practice and worse, in it’s reviews by investors in the financial news.
There is not a whole lot to say about the design itself, other than it is a departure from the lush plastered-and-painted Tuscany look it had before. The “customized” type is clumsy in places. We would recommend warming up the brown a bit, so it’s not so cold.
The almost backwards slant of the writing is visually halting, and in the field of handwriting analysis, a backwards slant means cold, aloof, and concealed among other things. Lidia Foroglu, the Director of Morettian Graphology School in Padua – Italy, states: “Backward Slant leads to the temptation to commit suicide as an expression of the intensity of internal suffering and as a form of spite and extreme contradiction…” so we tend to avoid even the hint of a backwards slant, unless it’s a font that does not look like handwriting.
We have heard Olive Garden’s plan; that it’s logo redesign will create a brand renaissance and revitalization for the restaurant chain, but a logo is just part of the brand and if Olive Garden cannot dispel the clinging adage that it’s noodles and sauces are “out of a can” then there isn’t a huge amount the logo will do.
