After the Oakland Airport went and changed its name to "San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport," SFO is sort-of responding with a fresh, new version of the airport logo they’ve used for the last 24 years.

It was just about three months ago when Oakland changed the name of Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, a move that seems  designed to confuse the public. And SF City Attorney David Chiu has sued the City of Oakland, so maybe that new name won’t last. But SF International Airport (SFO) is getting ahead of this one anyway, or at least trying to, as KRON4 reports that SFO just unveiled their own new logo on Wednesday.

And above we see the new logo, replacing this old logo that’s been in use since the year 2000. That shade of blue used is a color that they’re calling “SFO Golden Hour Blue.”

“We are excited to introduce our new brand and logo, which reflects the exciting changes happening at SFO,” the airport’s director Ivar Satero said in a press release. “Much like our old logo marked a period of time in the early 21st century, the new logo shows our commitment to deliver an airport experience where people and our planet come first.”

The video in the tweet above is mostly notable because it shows some of the airport’s vintage logos, plus many of the alternate versions of the new logo that can be busted out seasonally. One of those alternate logos is the ‘cable car’ version seen below, and there are additional alternates for Pride, Lunar New Year, and pandas. (Though they may be getting a little too optimistic about the panda thing.)    

The new logo is already on the FlySFO website, but just a small version on the top right corner. It will take a few years to phase in the new logo on buses and vehicles, marketing materials, and staff uniforms.

But looking at the full list of past SFO logos, we think you can’t beat the one from 1946 seen below.

Related: Oakland Port Commissioners Vote to Change Airport Name, Setting Up Legal Battle With San Francisco [SFist]

Image via FlySFO.com

The SF Gay Men's Chorus needed hired security when they took a tour of the Deep South in the immediate wake of the Charlottesville unrest three years back, but get your Kleenex ready for the feature documentary Gay Chorus Deep South that captures their tumultuous trip.

Back in early 2017, the world’s first ever openly LGBTQ choral group, known locally as the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, decided to do a tour of the red-state deep south thinking this would promote some unity in the ugly early days of the Trump presidency. Boy did they have another thing coming, as the White nationalist rally in Charlottesville roiled the nation just weeks before they set off, requiring a much larger security detail than they thought they’d need. They made it unscathed, despite nasty threats at many tour stops, and a documentary about the tour is just now hitting your on-demand streaming options.

Gay Chorus Deep South is now available for streaming on demand if your cable service has Logo or PopTV, or if you use Sling. It's scheduled to remain available on those platforms until February 15, and there’s also a live broadcast of the film at the very suboptimal hour of 9 a.m. PT on Wednesday morning, December 30 on something called PlutoTV.

“There’s three choruses in this film,” director David Rodrigues said in an NPR interview this week. “There’s the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, there’s the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and there’s the voices of the south. They play an equal role in kind of bringing the story together.”

The film has been very well-reviewed, and won the Audience Award at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Peter Debruge writes in his Variety review: “Rather than simply preaching to you-know-who, director David Charles Rodrigues — an equal-rights advocate who draws from his own ‘other’ status as a (straight-identifying) Brazilian American — succeeds in humanizing the individuals on both sides. If anything, the big surprise of the film is how its progressive-minded main characters, the 300 or so San Francisco singers who’ve struggled most of their lives to make peace with their identities, do most of the growing here.”

This film is a weepie, alright, but there’s another cause for needing a hankie. One of the film’s subplots is about chorus member Jimmy White, who reunites with the homophobic father who had years before disowned him. We’re sad to inform you that Jimmy White was lost to cancer on February 9  this year.

Related: This Is Giving Me Life Today: SF Gay Men's Chorus Serenades Healthcare Workersn [SFist]

Image: Gay Chorus Deep South

The most important fashion accessory this season is the massive Giants neckpiece around this man's neck. It is everything. More importantly, where can we get one?

If you, owner of said necklace, are reading this and would like to have your AMAZING wearable logo featured on SFist, please contact us at brock@sfist.com. We'd like to try it on for ourself. Maybe even have our cat try it on, too. The possibilities are limitless!

[The Tens, via Mission Mission]

Look, we get it. You're too complicated for television. Cable television, no less. You listen to Bjork b-sides and subscribe to The New Yorker. We hear you, lady. You probably vote progressive, too. But you should consider trying out for RuPaul's Drag Race.

Why? Because a) it's a brilliant show, a super fucking smart reality competition that combines parody, actual suspense, hilarity, and gorgeous attire; and b) some kid growing up in whatever small town you came from might be inspired by you and your on-air antics. You could very well help save a young tortured gay's life. After all, you got into performing drag to be seen, right? Don't answer that. We don't care why.

Local queen Honey Mahogany, if you recall, appeared on the current season. Alas, she was booted too early. Maybe you could survive longer next season? Maybe even win? Maybe. Just maybe.

Do it. Details:

After nearly a century and a half of presenting themselves with a perfectly academic-looking Victorian seal, the University of California School system has supplanted the open book and shining star motif with a new, more "modern" and "user-friendly" logo. Unfortunately, no one seems to like it.

The logo was quietlyintroduced last month as part of the 10-school system's ongoing "Onward California" re-branding effort. Although no one on the campus of U.C. Berkeley had apparently heard about the effort last week, the new slogan boldly announces: "Whether you know it or not, the University of California, or a UC grad, has probably played a part in your day." The campaign hopes to raise awareness of the UC system's impact outside of academic settings and in everyday environments.

As any user-friendly design should, the new logo comes in an array of colors — one for each of the UC Schools. The design itself was created by an in-house team and is designed to look better when used in digital and print materials. As one representative from of UC's Office of the President (now proudly sporting the logo on its website) explained: the UC system needed a fresh new look because, "there's nothing static about an excellent university." To show they're serious about the logo update, the University of California even made a promo commercial that looks like it could also be promoting a new line of hybrid cars:

Naturally, outrage over the new design hit the Internet where some wondered what could possess the UC System to create a logo that looks like a toilet down which their tuition dollars are being flushed:

Hmm, wonder how much the University of California spent on "image consultants" to come up with this ugly new logo... fb.me/yuwVQscR

— FrumpyMom (@FrumpyMom) December 10, 2012

As it turns out, the in-house team worked at no extra cost to the University system, which might say more about the logo than a thousand angry tweets. Still, no less than four Facebook groups have already popped up, opposing the new design and a Change.org petition imploring the University of California to stop the new UC logo has already gathered over 40,000 supporters.

For their part, the administration says the new logo is not intended to completely replace the 144-year-old seal, which will still find life on diplomas and other official documents. Rather, it should be viewed as visible trademark that extends the school's presence into the real world, reminding people of the school's importance and ultimately bringing in more fundraising dollars. UC Marketing Director Jason Simon even responded to the haters on the Change.org page by appealing to every Californian's casual sense superiority: "The new mark was created as a part of our broader efforts to build awareness and support for all the things that UC does to make California (and by extension the world) better."

However, as the East Bay Express accurately points out: It's not just the new logo that should bristle UC students and alums everywhere, but the corporate feel that the logo suggests. Which is a much bigger issue to deal with than an unpopular brandmark.

[MercuryNews]
[LATimes]
[EBX]

Microsoft unveiled a fresh new logo on Thursday, their first signage makeover in 25 years. The crisper, blockier new look prefaces the company's release of Windows 8 set to go live on October 26. You like?

SFist asked San Francisco-based designer Alissa Mach to give us her impression of the new logo. While admitting to finding it an overall cleaner look, she's "still not in love with it," adding that "the best logos never have to be redesigned with a full overhaul (e.g., Apple, Coke, McDonalds). They only tweak them so the changes are barely noticeable." As for the company itself, Microsoft said the redesign "represents a new era for Microsoft" and that new Microsoft logo "takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors."

A brief video about their new look:

Micosoft goes on to point out, with all of the pluck and vim of a business graduate student, that logo comes replete with two components: the logotype and the symbol. "For the logotype, we are using the Segoe font which is the same font we use in our products as well as our marketing communications," the company notes. "The symbol is important in a world of digital motion (as demonstrated in the video above.) The symbol's squares of color are intended to express the company's diverse portfolio of products."

If your entire world has been thrown off axis over Starbucks new logo, fear not, loyal patrons. The coffee mammoth will walk you through the change in a minute and a half long video on their website. The new logo is pretty much their old logo, sans their name around it. The mermaid, thankfully, is still intact. Ta-da. But what say you, yes or no? Do you approve?

Well that didn't take long. After last week's Internet backlash, San Francisco's favorite khaki maker* has reverted back to their classic logo. Gap president Marka Hansen apparently changed her mind about how "contemporary and current" the new logo was after an "outpouring" of pro-bono replacements offered up by designers.

A Gap rep says Laird & Partners (the New York Agency that created the logo) haven't been ejected yet, but the clothing company did mention they are pursuing a crowdsourcing project in the near future. The lesson here? Never underestimate the power of underemployed freelancers.
[AdAge]
Comic Sans logo designed by TheTensSF

(*Do people still wear Dockers?)

by Andrew Dalton

Local mega-brand Gap ditched their iconic logo, known for sufficiently capturing the brand's tasteful and unpretentious character, in favor of a slick new helvetica-laced number this week. Which brings them ever closer to the American Apparel territory they've been inching towards since they debuted new ads for their 1969 denim collection a year ago.

Unfortunately, everyone and their roommate is a graphic designer on twitter these days and the Internet hates it, so now it's a big deal. There's even a tool to make your own. So far the new logo has only popped up on the company's website, so aside from the designer's hourly rate, we assume they haven't sunk too much cash into this. Which is good, because according to the SF Business Journal their same-store sales numbers are down this year.

[AdWeek]
[AdAge]
[SFBiz]

Taking a cue from American Idol, team Newsom is having a contest where you, the voter, get to decide which logo will represent Gavin Newsom's crapshoot for Governor of California.

Part of Newsom Campaign Manager Nick Clemons' over-excited press release reads:

Our campaign is about creating a new direction for California and bringing much needed reforms to Sacramento. We want to highlight this in our logo, too.

How you campaign says a lot about how you will govern, once elected. So we’re going to do things differently. Usually, the process of deciding on a campaign logo is a big, guarded secret. Well, not this time.

We put together a group of six different logos on our website and your vote will determine the official Gavin Newsom campaign logo.

That said, please pick the red one. It is, for lack of a better word, dramatic -- very red China, Manchurian Candidate. That, and the other ones are ugly, clinical, and blue-ish. (Newsom needs to get away from blue, the preferred color for politicians.)

Vote here.