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[From top: Ray D’Arcy and the Irish Water logo that cost €20,000]

Pamela Blake, of Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy Show, writes:

In the Daily Mail last week, they revealed Dublin-based agency Zero-G were paid €20,000 to come up with the new logo for Irish Water. That’s €5,000 per word. Ray talked about it on air and wondered how it could cost so much?

Listening in Limerick was Ken – a graphic designer. He loaded the logo into a ‘find a font’ programme and found that the font used is ‘SCALA SANS’ – a free font available to source online. He then recreated the logo himself in the space of 10 minutes.

When we asked Bord Gáis – the Irish Water mothership – what font their designers used in the logo, they came back to us and said it’s ‘a bespoke font designed especially for the logo’.

That’s funny! So when we sent Ken’s illustration below back to them and explained the SCALA SANS font, they backtracked and gave us this response:

“The typeface for the logo is an adaptation of the typeface Scala Sans. This typeface was selected for its good readability both online and in print. It is a modern clean typeface that also lends itself to effective form design. The font is open source and is free to use, in keeping with the overall principles of developing an identity programme that is efficient and cost-effective.”

Cost-effective? How is €20,000 for this logo using a free, open source ready-made font cost effective?

Zero-G, who created the logo, did not have to tender for the job as it was below a specified threshold. They have previously designed logos and branding for Bord Gáis.

Irish Water Logo (Today FM)

Previously: Fontabulous

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