Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Acts Like They Don't Know You

State Farm Insurance, the "good neighbor" people, have decided that Florida's just too risky a place to offer homeowner's insurance, what with the hurricanes, wildfires, falling space debris and whatnot.

One insurance company's weasely exit is a local independent's entrance, who've begun running radio ads for "Dropped By the Farm." It looks like a hastily assembled operation, complete with sad logo and sad stock photography of a sad couple reading a sad letter from State Farm, a sad company.

Dear Mr. & Mrs Loyal Customer Who Always Paid Their Dues on Time and Never Filed a Claim:

We have enjoyed taking your money here at State Farm, but from now on, you're on your own. Seems hurricanes and stuff like that are cutting into our massive profits and that shit don't wash at State Farm.

Fuck you very much.

Goodbye.

State Farm

Our super-tanned, anorexic, not-gay, very-happily-married Governor, Charlie Crist, is getting in some parting jabs at the mafia-esque State Farm: "They probably charge about the highest rates in the state, anyway," Crist said after State Farm announced its exit strategy. Ooooh! Buuuuurn!

Also, State Farm is recalling 800,000 Teddy Bears because the eyes come off and choke little babies to death. The bears are called "good neigh bears." Seriously. That's as stupid a name as State Farm's logo is a hideous mass of twisted red trash.

Way to go, State Farm.

The Meatball and the Worm

For the design freaks out there, there's an interesting piece today in The New York Times Style Magazine by Alice Rawsthorn about NASA's identity crisis.

Although after reading, I'm still not sure why NASA holds on to this hyper-dated logo, or "insignia" as they call it. They sought to modernize it in 1972 as part of the Federal Design Improvement Program, an initiative supported by President Nixon to modernize the use of design by government agencies. After spending a ton of your money coming up with an alternative that works, they brought this thing back in the bad years of NASA (crashes) to remind people of the glory years. It just reminds me of bad design.

Stop It, Already

See here? You can do the shiny logo reflection in MS Word now. That means it's way played. So you can stop doing it on all of your logo designs and websites. Please.

MapQuest: Too Little, Too Late

It's a shame what happened to MapQuest. At one time, way long ago in the days when we didn't have Google Street Views and Google Look at My Backyard Views and Google Stare Into My Bedroom Window Views, MapQuest was the go-to source for driving directions. They had it so good, even their name became a verb: We'd say "MapQuest it," and "Yeah, we MapQuested it."

Now where are they? Sucking the fumes of Google Maps. And what do they do about it? A few months back they got rid of their hideous '90s beveled logo. Now they've added a shiny Web 2.0 reflection to their Jetsons Font about two years too late.

Here's the old, old one:Here's the new old one:And here's the newest one:
Yeah, that should fix things, MapQuest. Now you're relevant again. We will forget that visiting your cumbersome site is an exercise in frustration and an example of retro-usability.

No. Wrong. Do Over.

You are not supposed to think of sun when you think of milk. It makes you think of warm, almost spoiled milk. Here in America, we like our milk cold, just like our beer. And your logo, Sunny Florida? Seriously? I can't count the levels of wrong this thing is. But you've been around since 1911, so what the hell do I know?