Today marks 10 years of living in Texas. I never planned to stay this long, but there's no doubt I've enjoyed my time in the Lone Star State!

Over the past few weeks, I've assembled a list of notes everyone should know if they plan to move out here.

1. Everyone will tell you to use the bathroom at a certain gas station

All must worship at the Altar of Lord Buc-ees!

2. The preferred brand of ice cream is Blue Bell. This is the way.

Texans lost their minds in 2015 when Blue Bell was temporarily shut down.

And whatever you do, don't show up to a Bar-B-Q with that Great Value brand.

Hot take: HEB brand ice cream is better.

3. Pickup trucks are a man's other best friend

Texans might argue over Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, but the instant you say anything negative about a pickup truck they'll put all that aside and gang up on you.

4. When someone invites you to their house for barbecue or steaks...you are "one of us"

It's arguably the biggest step in any Texas friendship.

5. Everyone's favorite trivia question involves the Texas state flag

"Did you know Texas is the only state flag that can fly as high as the US flag?"

And they're proud of this...and now maybe I am too?

6. The spicy ketchup at Whataburger is the best ketchup in the world

It's not really that spicy, but paired with some piping hot french fries.... 🤯

Some even wonder if this is where the design of Beto O'Rourke's brand came from.

Beto O’Rourke’s logo for his 2020 presidential run is drawing comparisons to iconic Texas chain Whataburger

Beto O’Rourke’s logo for his 2020 presidential run is already being compared to iconic Texas chain Whataburger’s spicy ketchup.

InsiderKate Taylor

7. Think of any word, put the word "Texas" after it, and that's the name of a real place in Texas.

I was about 40 miles away from an explosion in West, Texas (not west Texas). Ironically, the town of West, TX is actually in east Texas.

There are a million and one blogs dedicated to this, but Texas has some crazy names for towns and cities.

From Bug Tussle to Tarzan, here are 40 of the oddest Texas town names

It’s plain to see where certain Texas town names come from. For example, Round Rock, Sugar Land and College Station tote some exceptionally literal names. But tons of other Texas towns, from Nameless to Uncertain and Bug Tussle to Frognot, flaunt names with less obvious origins.

KPRC Click2HoustonBriana Zamora-Nipper

8. Four quick claps in a public setting triggers a musical reaction

9. You can say nothing bad about Texas except for the electrical grid...complete free pass

If you know what ERCOT is, I'm sorry.

10. In the fall, it's important to know how your town's high school football team is doing if you want to have anything to talk about after church on Sunday

The average high school stadiums is bigger and better than probably 80 percent of college stadiums, and I feel like that's a conservative estimate.

11. No state income tax is great

April is a lot better when there's no paperwork to file with the state!

12. Texans love the shape of their state

If you can buy it, there's a version of it in the shape of Texas.

13. The official state drink is Dr. Pepper

If you ask for a "coke," there's a good chance the waiter will live auto-correct you..."Did you mean Dr. Pepper?"

14. Surprisingly, unsweet tea was the default choice until recently

Many restaurants still don't have sweet tea.

15. H-E-B is the best grocery store

You'll end up buying food you've never tried before thanks to irresistible yellow coupons throughout the store.

From hurricanes to ice storms to COVID, H-E-B has faithfully taken care of Texans in the worst of times, which is why we're loyal to them 'til the day we die!

16. “Mum” does not mean "mom"

This is still confusing to me. People will literally pay $1,000 for flowers.

17. No matter where you are in the DFW Metroplex, you are only one hour away from where you want to be

It's a big metroplex, but they didn't skimp on the roads.

Seriously, a single lane could be the width of two lanes in other states.

18. People are very judgmental about chips and salsa

If you want to break up with someone, just say "Pace salsa is pretty good."

19. In the minds of some (many?) Texans, the Statue of Liberty is the second most important monument of freedom behind “Big Tex”

20. “Don’t Mess with Texas” was originally a littering campaign

The website is still up and going strong!

Home - Don’t Mess With Texas

Don’t Mess With Texas

Don't Mess With Texas

21. It's dangerous to drive anywhere during "blue bonnet season"

Whether it's a country road or a busy interstate, millions of moms feel the extreme need to pull over and get a selfie with the famous flower every year.

22. The State Fair is so important they give kids a day off of school just to go

I was so confused when I first heard students say they had "Fair Day" off.

23. Since there's no emoji with the state flag (yet), Texans use the flag of Chile 🇨🇱

I'm confident that once Gen Z is old enough to be in the Texas Government, they'll legislate a Texas state flag emoji.

24. Most Texas stereotypes are wrong, except for one

You're more likely to see hipsters than cowboys in Texas, but don't be fooled because the hipsters are packing.

Red or blue, Texans love their guns.

25. The state pride is real

State history is mandatory in middle school, and you can feel this state was previously a country.

Texans love Texas, and there's no state that comes close to matching that intensity.

Did I miss any?

I'm sure I did, so leave a comment below and let me know!

If you're new to UI design (or really just design), you need to be following @erikdkennedy. Of the thousands of online design educators, Erik has quickly become my favorite with his clear explanations and applicable examples.

I see this thread come across my Twitter feed every few months, and for good reason: You won't find 50 high-quality explanations like this anywhere in the Twitterverse.

And if you enjoyed that, you should sign up for his free newsletter Design Hacks.

I received a lot of good feedback on my post about the Washington Commanders rebrand. While the rebrand had some good elements, in the end I couldn't help but conclude the brand was generic and forgettable.

This morning I found the explanation from the company hired to create the new brand—Code and Theory—and I think I figured out why the rebrand missed the mark (and why they've already had to tweak the crest).

Was it crafted by sports fans?

Code and Theory sought to build "the most inclusive sports team brand—ever."

I’ve spend thousands of hours in the sports industry, and the only individuals who would use the phrase “sports team” in any context are non-sports fans.

If you're in the sports industry, you would reword the objective to something like "the most inclusive sports franchise—ever."

But if you don't understand sports, you're liable to think the 'sports team' plays the 'sports game' on the 'sports field' with the 'sports ball'....

Okay, a bit tongue-in-cheek. But they were aiming generic, and I think they hit the nail on the head.

Also, check out this new* crest for Washington.

Setting aside the design faux-pas of:

1. Using three (or more?) fonts in a single logo,
2. Including SIX different years,
3. And designing a crest that does not scale down well at small sizes...

This design strongly resembles international football, not American football.

Examine the Commanders' crest next to the English Premiere League logos.

The crest says "football," much like Liverpool or Leichester City.

A friend commented that the three stars in the Commanders' crest also resemble the three stars in the (very-American) Major League Soccer logo.

But back to the Commanders crest.

Visually, this doesn't say American football because it's so generic.

Which, when I think about it,  fits well with the objective of creating an identity for a "sports team." 🤷🏻‍♂️

Lastly, you can tell this wasn't crafted by sports fans because....what happens to the crest if Washington wins another Super Bowl?

If you're going to design an identity for a franchise grow into, don't make it possible for the team to outgrow it in less than a year.

The Knock-Off Brand

In Code and Theory's design reasoning, they went to great lengths to explain that this rebrand is deeply rooted in inclusivity. In fact, they use the word “inclusive," or a varying form, 8 times in their brief. (By comparison, the word “football” was only used once when not referring to the "Washington Football Team").

The goal was inclusivity, not so much the NFL, football, or Washington DC.

But why inclusivity as the focus?

Well, the Redskins nickname was deemed not inclusive, and if you're going to go through the trouble (and expense 💰) of a full rebrand, you do not want to go through that process again.

At the end of the day, the emphasis on inclusivity is inseparable with the former nickname.

This leads to the design philosophy being built around NOT being the Redskins more than it is built around BEING the Commanders.

This is what I call the 'knock-off brand,' where a brand's equity is inescapably rooted in its imitation or rejection of another brand.

And it never works.

Someone knocked-off YouTube and called it GodTube.

No matter how good the content on GodTube will be, it's ultimately a knockoff of YouTube and sounds like a website where you're going to get three popup ads for hot singles in your area.

Mike Huckabee's campaign for President in 2016 is one of the more recent knock-off brand attempts, where his entire marketing strategy centered around knocking off the well-crafted Obama brand.

1. The rally cry "From Hope to Higher Ground" draws from Obama's "Hope" messaging
2. The logo imitates the horizon in Obama's famous O.

The Huckabee strategy meant that his unique identifier was that he was not the guy already in office. But there are already 300+ million Americans who aren't Obama; what made Huckabee special? (Apparently not much because he ended his campaign shortly after it launched.)

The knock-off brand can never work.

The Washington Commanders brand was built around not being the Redskins, and that led to the visual identity being too generic.

The design philosophy should have been to go all-in on being the Commanders. Identify the great Commanders in American history and incorporate that into the identity.

Already changed the crest?

There was confusion as to the years on the crest that represent the Super Bowl winning seasons. The crest originally had the calendar year of the Super Bowl win, not the year the season started (as is custom in the NFL).

Well, it's been changed.

But you keen-eyed readers will notice they also removed the gradient background of the crest, which was previously lighter in the top-right.

Is it really that bad?

Embracing the rebrand of a beloved team remains a tough ask for any agency aiming to please a franchise with a vast and passionate fanbase. The new identity has to be unique enough for the franchise to grow into over time but familiar enough to maintain the existing brand equity.

In execution, the Washington Commanders concept feels like it was birthed from a brief that stated, "Give us a new nickname, get people to forget we were ever the Redskins, and don't you dare touch our colors."

Ultimately, they tried to please everyone and ended up splitting the difference, which is why we're left with a decent high school or college brand that comes up short of encompassing the glory of one of the world's most iconic sports franchises.

Another Super Bowl means another TV networks rolls out a fresh broadcast graphics package, and NBC is wasting no time showing their new look in today's Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show.

Lower Thirds: Standard

Up to this point, the layout is almost the same as all the other networks. But check out what they do when they want to show a headshot and a team logo.

Most networks put the logo over Sean McVay's right shoulder, but NBC has elected to "squish" it between the headshot and the primary text area. Seems risky because the team logo is going to be very hard for viewers to identify.

Now the NFL logo is pretty easy to recognize, but it's also one of the most recognizable logos ever. It's impossible to think any logo in that slot will be easily identifiable when you consider all of the logos in the sports world: NFL, NCAA, and beyond.

Bold decision. We'll see if it pans out.

Lower Thirds: Slim

Worth noting two things

1. The Twitter logo is not present, but the Twitter color is. Notice how the NBC peacock is overlaid with that unique blue of Twitter's primary color. (They still have the rainbow logo in the top right.)
2. Note how the title line is for NBC's show (@SNFonNBC) instead of Michelle Tafoya's Twitter handle

Now this one's weird because it's slim, aligned to the top left, and takes more of the visual cues from the standard lower thirds than the slim ones.

Corner Box

Classic layout, but they're so clean.

Split views

Ticker

Surprisingly, the ticker looks the same as it has been. Looks like the smooth lines of the new lower thirds clash with the straight lines and angled corners of the ticker

Conclusion

When it comes to broadcast graphics, NBC Sports historically sits on a throne above all competitors  After watching today's Super Bowl Pregame Show, it looks like we have 3 or 4 more years of the NBC peacock thinking it's better than everyone else.

If you're not an NFL fan or have been quarantined in your basement since March 2020 with no Internet connection and only a bag of Doritos to keep you company, then you might have missed that the Washington Redskins retired their nickname in 2020 and have played two entire NFL seasons under the ultimate generic name of the Washington Football Team.

That all changed on 2/2/22 when we got our first look at a new NFL franchise brand since the Houston Texans joined just over 20 years ago.

Setting aside the question of if Washington should have rebranded (because the Internet is full of commentary on that), we're here to examine and deconstruct the execution of the new brand.

From Washington

Full press release

The Washington Football Team is now the Washington Commanders

New team identity pays tribute to regional culture of leadership and service as well as Washington’s rich history and football legacy as the team enters its 90th Season.

Washington Football TeamCopied!

More explanation on the branding

Homepage - Washington Journey

Join the Washington Football Team Journey! It’s a new era for the Washington Football Team. WashingtonJourney.com is the official place for updates on the process of the Washington Football Team rebrand.

Washington Journey

Analysis

Brand reveal video.

Everything points to this video as the place to learn about the changes. (Surpisingly no link to embed, which seems odd for 2022)

https://www.commanders.com/video/brand-reveal-video

The video is...fine. Thoroughly fine. Not bad, not great. Squarely mediocre (much like their team, which has only had a winning record 3 times since the new millenium, but I digress).

Calling back to the 'legends' of the past is the safe move. Reminds people of what makes the Redsk...Commanders great.

Still, I don't think it was wise for us to see the Redskins logo more than the Commanders logo.

Overall, I expected more from an NFL franchise. Brand reveal video = meh.

For the record, this is how it's done.

Logomark

Here's a side-by-side with the quick W they created for the Washington Football Team moniker 18 months ago. A few nice changes to make it more striking. But again, I expected more.

The new logomark looks like it has a subtle "1" on the right "piece" of the W, which I really like. Doubt it was intentional, but that's a win in my book.

Can't help but wish they had incorporated the Washington Monument or some Washington landmark into it somehow. The logomark lacks any tie to Washington DC, confusion with the state of Washington notwithstanding.

Other teams incorporate the local culture into the design.

The Houston Texans prominently integrated the Texas Lone Star into the logo.

The fleur-de-lis is the New Orleans Saints. End of discussion.

But the Washington Commanders logomark doesn't really say Washington or Commanders.

It just says W.

In spite of its ambiguity, the actual design of the W is unique and memorable, and hopefully that pays off in the long run.

Of course, we could just call it a win that it doesn't resemble the style or color from the Ws of the Washington Nationals or Walgreens....

Wordmark

99 percent sure the typeface is Oswald. If not, it's a really close knock-off of it...check out this specimen from Google Fonts.

Hard to get excited about a generic font with stripes on the top and bottom. Feels extremely low-budget.

Selecting a typeface that's generic and free from Google Fonts does not honor the unique history of Washington nor evoke the prestige of an elite NFL franchise.

Seriously, spend some money and get a unique font from a type foundry.

Moving on...

The C and S were adjusted to have a more interesting angle.

I can't help but wonder, do the angles/cutouts have any meaning, or maybe the whitespace created by the angles? Do they connect to the angles of an award on a Commander's uniform in the US Army or something? I don't think the angles are bad necessarily, but I don't really understand how that design choice ties into the overall brand.

Now how about those two Ms....geez. Based on the specimen I created on Google Fonts, I think the designer kept them relatively untouched from the original font. Maybe it's just me, but those Ms look like they're stuck on the middle seat after boarding in Group C on Southwest Airlines.

Alternatives

Here are some of my favorite alternatives created by designers and posted on Behance.

Washington Warhawks

Washington Warhawks

Washington Warhawks

BehanceBehance

The wordmark is weak, but the logomark and alternate more than make up for it. Eagles and stars? Can't get more Washington/American than that.

Washington Redtails

Washington RedTails - Washington Redskins Rebrand

This is a concept design for the rebranding of the Washington Redskins, to the Washington Redtails.

BehanceBehance

Why the Redtails you ask?

The name ‘Redtails’ is a nod to the WWII Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African-American military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces. The nickname ‘Red Tails’ comes from their planes, which had a distinct crimson tail. I believe this is a great opportunity to maintain the current brand's color palette, while at the same time giving historical meaning to the franchise.

Washington Redhawks

Washington Redhawks - Brand ID Proposal

New identity proposal for the Washington Redskins

BehanceBehance

My favorite of them all. Brandon Moore really put some thought into this with good explanations for each change made. I love the way he drew from the geometric inspiration from the existing visual identity to create something both new and yet familiar.

Conclusion

Washington kept the classic maroon and gold colors. Besides that, I don't see how they honored the past or created an exciting future with their new identity. Creating a NFL brand is hard, which is why it was critical for Washington to create a unique attitude with their identity that the team could grow into (like the Rams did a few years back).

As it stands right now, we're left with a really solid high school football team design. No chances were taken. Nothing here is really all that memorable.

Then again, maybe after the media carousel they've been on the past two years, not being memorable was the goal of this rebrand from the very beginning.

A year ago today while watching Thursday Night Football, I noticed this frame was jam-packed with logos.

Can you imagine a brief requesting all of these logos in the same image?

Whoever did the layout kept it simple and basically just stacked them all up. Not sure if there was a better way to do it, but it's still pretty clunky.

Overall, I think the genius move here was to keep the pixels primarily focused on the background city graphic (lots of depth) and the broadcasters (personal appeal) as opposed to the Leaning Tower of Logos.

It's really hard to count how many there are because of combinations. Do NFL and NFL network count as two?

Here's my best take.

1. Dallas Cowboys
2. Baltimore Ravens
3. NFL
4. NFL Network
5. FOX
6. FOX NFL
7. FOX Sports (on the mic flag)
8. Prime
9. Prime Video
10. Amazon smile
11. Bud Light
12. Bud Light Platinum
13. GMC
14. GMC Kickoff Show?

Did I miss any? Have an idea of what they should have done? Drop a comment!

Great explanation from Vox of all places.

I prefer to highlight good design choices instead of rip bad ones, but for the new brand identity for the Library of Congress, I’m making an exception.
Pentagram was tasked with the redesign. And I can’t for the life of my tax dollars figure out why we needed a redesign or why the final design was chosen.
I’ll give you 5 reasons this new logo and design system should have been axed early on in the process.

Where is the Unique Selling Point?

I visited the Library of Congress for the first time a few months ago and was privileged to visit the Main Reading Room.

You know what made this trip to the library special from any other library I’ve visited?

I was inside the Library of Congress.

Of the United States of America.

And yet the new logo shrinks the word “Congress,” choosing instead to highlight the word “Library.”

I don’t know that “Congress” can ever be more prominent than “Library” for a design, but it should at least be equal in visual weight. (You know, like it was.)

I can take the current logo and replace “Congress” with any location or company (e.g. “Library of San Francisco”, “Library of Amazon”, etc.), and the logo is fine.

I can’t do that with the old logo.

To lessen the impact of “Congress” is to diminish the very ethos of the Library of Congress itself.

Typeface Selection

Druk Condensed was used for the main “LIBRARY”, and it is great for headlines. The Cooper Hewitt-esque typeface for “Library of Congress” contrasts nicely with a rounder, more geometric flavor.

I like these typefaces together, but why two sans-serif typefaces? The current trendy decision to sans-serif everything fails to provide any connection or visual substance to the historical records of the Library of Congress (which are overwhelmingly in a serif, mind you).

The old logo used Trajan, which is far from a perfect serif. But it wasn’t bad at all and worked well with the open book logo.

Speaking of books…

The Amazon color scheme

Books + orange = Amazon

Red + white + blue = America

Abandon the American blue for Amazon orange reveals how badly the Library of Congress wanted to feel new and modern.

The lock-up variations should be locked up…forever

Just look at the first lock-up. Why does the L in the subtitle sit between the B and the R? It’s not lined up to anything.

Now look at the second lock-up. The L sits right at the R, or does it? It’s off to the left a little bit. But hey, at least the S at the end of Congress lines up with the Y.

Then there’s the entire concept of splitting the headline and inserting "Library of Congress" (or really anything they could think of) in between the main LIBRARY wordmark.

Now that wordmark with the the narrow letters is supposed to symbolize books on a shelf, and Pentagram said, "Hey, people keep stuff between the books on their shelf. So let's do that here!"

But I’ll say it again: This is for the Library of Congress! This is not a personal library; this is the library!

Why abandon the quality and respect of our nation’s information nucleus for a cheap replication of my home bookshelf?

5. Department of Redundancy Department

I can’t help but read “LIBRARY Library of Congress” every time I see the logo.

Closing Statement

No imagery.  Odd lockups. A bizarre orange popsicle color choice. Why did we ever trash the old design?

This logo only last 10 years! And it was done by one of the best design firms in the world in Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.

And CGH has a reasonable explanation for their design: The open book symbolizes the free and open availability of information, the serif typeface displays a sense of historical authority, and the unmistakable American flag subtly reveals the roots of the Library of Congress.

And we, the people, gave it all up for BIG BLACK BOLD LETTERS.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk

Today I was honored to meet with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg along with other key leaders in my local community. Mark is starting his "Year of Travel" in Texas and will continue to meet with students, community leaders, and everyday Americans across the United States.

Mark is one of the most humble individuals I have ever met. He began the conversation by expressing his desire to listen and understand our lives. The conversation navigated through a variety of topics, including religion, politics, media, and business. He sincerely wanted our perspective on these issues.

I would like to thank the city of Waxahachie, SAGU President Kermit Bridges, and the entire SAGU community for allowing me to have a seat at the table.

You can read more about Zuckerberg’s visit here.

In case you missed it, Marvel Studios announced a new logo and fanfare (opening graphics sequence before every film) at SDCC.

Here’s the one you’re familiar with. (EDIT: YouTube does not have the original fanfare with the animation, but we still have the audio)

Composed by Brian Tyler, this fanfare was a hit after being used to open Thor: The Dark World in 2014. There have been a few changes on a film-by-film basis (such as in Guardians of the Galaxy), but all have been pretty minor.

Fast-forward two years later to Marvel’s foray into Phase III, and the classic fanfare gets a redo.

At first, I couldn’t believe Marvel messed with something so perfect. Who doesn’t like to hear that sound in the theater?

But the new version growing on me. Actually it already *has* grown on me.

And now I see why Marvel had to make the change.

1. Who made this Marvel movie?

Fox’s X-Men and Deadpool properties are doing very well. Unfortunately, viewers are confusing it with Marvel Studios (a subsidiary of Disney.) Many parents attended Deadpool with their kids, expecting a new hero to cover lunchboxes.

Oops.

While that scenario can be blamed on poor parenting, Marvel Studios’ new fanfare and logo make it clear who made the film. Fox can’t use it. Universal can’t use it (they own the rights to any stand-alone Hulk movies). Only Disney’s Marvel Studios can be associated with the film.

Which is good because Disney doesn’t want to be associated with the disaster that was Fantastic Four.

Not convinced? Take a look at the old and new ending frame.

The number of pixels used to market Marvel is the same, but “Studios” was increased 5 fold. They’re basically declaring, “We are Marvel Studios, everyone else is off-brand Marvel.”

2. The distinction of Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios is its own entity within Disney, like Pixar or LucasFilm. Having each Marvel Studios film open with the can’t-miss fanfare enhances and clarifies Disney’s portfolio. Disney owns Marvel Comics, but that’s not the same as Marvel Studios.

And while it seems like an impossibility now, Marvel Studios could technically be sold off in the future.

3. Fresh paint is necessary

Fans who have followed Marvel Studios since *Iron Man* have seen 13 MCU films. And if they’re following other superhero franchises, they’re probably seeing some combination of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, or Jessica Jones TV shows, Fox’s X-Men series, DC’s Batman and Superman sagas, or DC’s Arrow, Flash, Gotham, Legends of Tomorrow, or Supergirl TV shows.

The sheer number of films and TV shows featuring people in spandex will eventually tire out fans.

New openers and logos create the idea of something new, that the old plot lines are behind and fresh stories are on the way.

4. Marvel Studios could do it right

Outside of John Williams, there aren't many composers who could improve on Brian Tyler’s Fanfare. Michael Giacchino is one of them.

When you can get a mind like Giacchino’s (Lost, Star Trek, The Incredibles, UP) to create the opening experience for your movie franchise, you take it.

What do you think?

Good move for Marvel, or bad one? Leave a comment and let me know.