Two years ago the Saskatchewan government created a bit of a stir when it quietly began replacing the old wheat sheaf logo with a more modern logo to represent the idea that there was more to the province than just wheat.
The government was forced to proceed cautiously because when the Saskatchewan Party tried a similar move shortly after it was elected in 2007 as part of its rebrand of the province as “new Saskatchewan”, it was forced to back down in the face of public backlash.
Today, the Leader-Post rolled out a long-awaited redesign as part of a revamp of the entire Postmedia chain — and lo-and-behold, the newspaper’s new logo (pictured above) features a vast wheatfield.
The picture perhaps doesn’t do it justice, but even when seen first-hand the logo doesn’t exactly leap off the page. As explained by editor Stephen Ripley in an accompanying editorial:
Our print edition was redesigned by Postmedia design consultant Gayle Grin, with input from Mario Garcia, the world’s leading newspaper designer. The London-based design powerhouse Winkreative crafted our brilliant new logo — an abstract representation showing fields of golden wheat against the prairie sun, bisected by a highway stretching from the horizon into the heart of the city. To me, it speaks of prosperity and possibility; of open skies and the knowledge that the journey is just as important as the destination.
If I’m reading the logo correctly, the horizon’s vanishing point is in the upper left hand corner, and as the highway widens it eventually opens up onto the main part of the Leader-Post’s front page, which symbolizes the aforementioned heart of the city. I’m also assuming that the light yellow area represents the spreading rays of the rising sun. That would seem to locate the highway on the eastern edge of the city, which means at some point Postmedia should probably find a way to incorporate a reference to the new multi-billion dollar bypass that’s being built.
Or maybe I’m just over-thinking things? Anyway, the design’s from London, so it has to be good. And as we all know, nothing says Saskatchewan like “wheat”.