3 April, 2007

150cm of unhelpfulness

Part of my job is to oversee the use of the corporate logo on departmental websites.

It's a red graphic on white, accompanied by mid-grey text on the left. The colours can't be changed, the relative orientation of the graphic and text can't be altered (the text can't go below or to the right, or can't be resized relative to the graphic), and both elements have to be present – it's not permitted to use the graphic alone without text. One section of the institution does use a different colour combination, but that was specifically authorised at the highest level, by senior management. If anyone else tries it, I need to be the proverbial tonne of bricks.

Arriving at work this morning, I happened to notice that the refurbished main entrance to my building (central admin) is almost finished. The wall has been painted a deep red and the logo has been attached. It's dark grey, and omits the text. Dark grey on red, just the graphic, and 1½ m high.

Now what do I do? How can I intimidate persuade departmental web maintainers to use the authorised format, when they can simply say "well, you don't"?