St David's Centre, Cardiff

Identity
Having recently completed a college-set identity brief for a youth center in Newcastle, I was interested to observe the visual style of the newly branded St David's Center in Cardiff, Wales. Interestingly, the concept is quite similar to the one which my group produced. It focuses on the idea of many people coming together to create a whole, and this is the basis for much of the design within the identity.
Above is the concept of gathering realized as an image of a crowd producing the letter 'D'. The shadow of this idea becomes the logo that is hung above the center in Cardiff and has been applied the poster and signage design. The logo as it appears in the center is pictured below.

While I feel that the logo is reasonably dynamic and energetic, I am undecided whether it is successful in visualizing the concept of coming together. Having spoken to a number of non-designers about the logo, it would appear that I am not alone in this trail of thought. Some were explicit enough to call it childish and mediocre. When I explained the vigorous process of design that must have constructed this outcome, my defense was undermined by the famous phrase 'it looks like a two year old could have done it'. Admittedly, this view would be one of the extremes of my findings, but it serves as a testament to the difficultly of pleasing everyone in commercial design. It reminds me that designers often have a different opinion to non-designers and illustrates the need to take a look from outside in in order to communicate to the target audience.

While I am relatively impartial to the identity, I am sure that there are admires as well as critics regarding this style. The design was developed by a London based company named Johnson Banks. More of the St David's visual identity can be found here.