The New Nottingham Brand, Progress?
From This	To This..
A new logo for Nottinghamshire's been unveiled by the people responsible for its promotion as a tourist and business hot-spot. The new brand cost £120,000 to produce and a key feature is a new Logo that replaces the "Nottingham, Our style is legendary" Logo featuring a Robin Hood character. Experience Nottinghamshire's 'N' will appear in different forms all over the county on tourism leaflets, road signs and local firms' literature. You can see some images that'll be used in promoting Robin Hood county but will it have the desired effect? Experience Nottinghamshire claim our shopping rivals London, Manchester and Leeds, that we have a history that includes a wealth of literary excellence from the romantic to the modern. Add to that bars and restaurants serving up some of the best food and drink in the UK. And an arts calendar that features stunning exhibitions and internationally-renowned dance events. They say the 'N' represents all this View the BBC web forum regarding the Nottingham N
Examples of the supporting images
A compromise has been proposed
In response to the global condemnation of the decision by Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to remove the Robin Hood reference from the main promotional logo in favour of a big Slanty 'N',the World Wide Robin Hood Society proposed a compromise design that incorporated a silhouette of the Robin Hood statue superimposed over the Big 'N'. The proposal was originally used as an example to refute the claim by the design consultants that the Robin Hood reference would not fit in with the new 'N' logo proposals and was reproduced to illustrate an article in the Evening Post. (Read the Evening Post's article) An example of how to possibly make the best of a bad job! Prior to the recent County Council elections, the extent of the local,national and international ridicule of the Big'N' logo clearly caused embarrasment to the authorities and they closed ranks. However,although it appears to have gone quiet on the subject locally, the reality is that around the globe the decision is still being regarded with dis-belief, particularly as Nottingham is trying to portray itself as a commercially aware centre of business excellence.
The Robin Hood Society spent a lot of time, effort and money on a very extensive report: The power of the Bow and presented the findings (free of charge) to Experience Nottinghamshire, months before the new logo was conceived. We even offered our services for the new brand decision panel but we were told that we would be “biased” towards Robin. Since The World Wide Robin Hood Society produced this example of a compromise between Experience Nottinghamshire's Wonky N and the Robin Hood legend, we have been approached by several parties involved with promoting the City and County who want to use this version rather than the original. We know of at least two high profile schemes about to publish tens of thousands of brochures and flyers featuring this version of the Wonky N. We have decided to make the original artwork available in several formats for any parties who would like to use it. Explore Nottinghamshire seem to be convinced that the County and the world love the Wonky N and have not responded to our offer of a compromise. If you are interested and involved in promoting Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and feel that Robin Hood should not be demoted to a subliminal suggestion within one supporting image of arrows, please consider using this version of the N or your own logo featuring the Counties most enduring asset… Robin Hood. Please send your comments to: wonkyn@robinhood.info or contribute to the BBC Forum.
big_n_rhood as a Jpeg (895 kb) (600 Dpi)	big_n_rhood as a web Jpeg (23 kb) (72 Dpi)
big_n_rhood as an EPS file (20 Mb) (600 dpi)	big_n_rhood as a PSD file (10 Mb)
Robin Hood Limited accept no responsability for copyright for the use of these images. Article date 3 June 2005
PRESS HISTORY: 2 March 05:- Evening Post unveil the new brand and Logo: Read the report 14 March 05:- Various feedback and Evening Post letters including a Nottingham Ambassador stepping down over the big N issue 19 March 05:- Evening Post reveal that the design company behind Nottingham's £120,000 controversial new image came up with the idea in just 72 hours after their first suggestion was slated as "vacuous". 19 March 05:- Proffessor Heeley reports hugh publicity caused by the new Logo: Read the letter to the Evening Post During March 05:- Over 100 letters sent to the Evening post by local people vigourously arguing for the re-introduction of Robin Hood in some for to the County Logo. Here are a selection: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 19 March 05:- IT'S NONSENSE TO THE NTH DEGREE! Evening Post reveal whole postbag of complaining letters 21 March 05:- Evening Post report on The World Wide Robin Hood Societies alternative design proposal: the N incorporating a Robin Hood image. 23 march 05:- Nottingham Councillers and Ex Sheriffs battle to stop Robin Hood being brushed aside: Read the report 24 March 05:- Evening Post ask what do the experts think (about the new Logo) 26 March 05:- Slanty N received a mixed reaction at County Hall: Read the Political editors report from the Council meeting regarding the Logo including calls for a scrutiny committee to investigate if the money was well spent. 8 April 05:- Proffessor John Heeley defends the N logo and quotes Poll results (Comment by Evening post highlighting attempts by Mr Heeley to influence Poll). Read the Evening Post report May to present:- Independant BBC forum shows Local, National and International dissaproval of removal/total downgrade of Robin Hood imagerary from the Nottinghamshire Logo: Browse and add to the BBC Forum 7 June 05:- Nottingham Mela, Massive Asian festival uses WWRH version of the N on 50,000 leaflets and dosens of posters. Read the Evening Post report: Logo victory for Robin Hood 7 June 05:- BBC Radio Nottingham online poll shows that an overwhelming (87%) majority prefer either the WWRH Societies proposed compromise or want a Robin Hood Logo again.