Twat Watchers

I'm no fan of the old Weight Watchers logo.



It's boring, the type is getting dated, and the use of a swoosh is as meaningless as it is overly common.

But I have nothing good to say about the recently launched new logo, either:


Created by Paula Scher of Pentagram (probably the best-known woman designer alive today), it seems misbegotten to me in a number of ways.

First, as was pointed out by Twitter user Alex Griendling, it includes the word "twat" in the middle of it, and once you've seen that, you can't forget it. Lower-casing the two words, which was probably done to to make it friendly and young, has the unfortunate effect of making an in-between word where there wasn't one before.

Second, the description of the logo on Pentagram's site is full of the hyperbole I despise in graphic design presentations. "Modern, open and energetic, the identity brings to life the transformation that members experience when they adopt a new lifestyle that can lead to significant weight loss."

Transformation, huh? So you go from dark to light when you lose weight? You fade away, in effect? How does this read to women of color, particularly? Is light right?

Third, I can't get over the idea that a gradation is being presented as a concept in the first place. Really. A gradation?

Fourth, I predict the super-horizontal shape will be a problem when it comes to using the logo in layouts. Extremes in either direction always are. I see that there's a secondary mark, which is more useably compact, in a slightly vertical square shape, but that's not a fully readable logo. (After all, WW could stand for lots of things... Willy Wonka...Walt Whitman... Walter White... Okay, that's enough of a Breaking Bad reference.)


I'm a fan of Paula Scher's work. I love her book Make It Bigger. She's right about so many things.

But this logo is a miss.