Design experts weigh in on stimulus recovery logos

NEW YORK -- To help Americans see their $789 billion tax dollars at work, the White House has commissioned two brand logos for programs financed by the Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus package).

The logos will appear starting next month on signs and other materials for building modernization and weatherization projects, green energy programs, road and bridge work and other works using stimulus money.

The act allots $507 billion for projects intended to create 3.5 million jobs and contains $282 billion in tax changes designed to stimulate the overall economy.

One logo is for Department of Transportation projects: It says "TIGER," for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, in orange-and-black-striped letters, and it includes the DOT's website address.

The other, for all other projects, is a circle: a blue top half with stars and the Web address, a green quarter with leaves (for green energy projects) and a maroon quarter with gears (for infrastructure projects) and a small cross (for health initiatives).

"The idea was to tell the story of the Recovery Act and rebuilding America with an emphasis on a green future," says Nicholas Shapiro, White House spokesman. "The Recovery Act speaks to the investments we will make in green energy, infrastructure and health care to get the economy moving and lay the foundation for economic security in the long run."

Design expert Allen Adamson, who helped created the Homeland Security seal in 2002, says the logo works for sending a positive message.

"Calling it a recovery rather than a bailout is a good idea," says Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates' New York office. "It's a good idea to try to brand the stimulus package, because it communicates the positive aspect of what we're doing. The branding that was done before, the bailout package, was so atrocious."

However, brand identity expert Alan Siegel wonders if, by trying to say so much, the logo says very little.

"This is Amateurville," says Siegel, CEO of Siegel + Gale. "This is a logo from the 1930s. It's trying to communicate too many things. It's not a stimulating design. It's not memorable. It's not powerful."