Don’t design anything by committee!
West Ham appear to have scored a spectacular own goal in their consultation of the badge redesign. Supporters have never been involved in the 14 badge changes in the Hammers history and to my knowledge no other Premier League team has given their fans the vote on changing their badges. It appears to be a case of dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t.
It is claimed the original Yougov poll saw 77% in favor of change but by the second poll showed that only 56% backed the proposed design. It is a majority but hardly a landslide mandate for change.
There are now conspiracy theories that the wording of questions were manipulative or even outrageous claims that the poll itself was rigged. Two other polls run by fan sites showed strong opposition to the new proposed design.
The club can’t win and must now be regretting they ever involved the fans in the first place as this is another issue which appears to have split the fans down the middle rather than unite us. In their quest to be transparent maybe there is a problem with being too transparent.
The consultation has spawned many professional and wannabe fan designers to point what is wrong with the proposed crest and publish their own alternative designs to an eager audience of social media. In the end you can’t design a new crest by committee. The decision has been made and we just need to get on with it. Personally I think we will grow to love the new crest in the same way the London 2012 Olympics logo grew on anyone after a while. In my view there are more important things to worry about than a badge.