| UC Riverside visual identity?

Here are some random thoughts about the new (as of September 2006) UC Riverside visual identity:

The official UC Riverside seal used to look like this:

which is a variation of the University of California standard. Please ignore the fact that the best image I could find leaves a lot to be desired in terms of resolution. The new seal looks like this:

I like the implication -- the illumination does not come from above, but rather from the book, even though this change makes for a more boring composition. However, I have strong feelings against the execution. The new seal simply looks washed out. The book has shrunk after being washed, and looks rather shy. The choice of type is probably the weakest point of the whole seal; in particular the letter "U" lacks the strength of a good capital letter.

The new UC Riverside logotype looks like this:

All things considered, quite alright. The choice of the subtle alteration of the letter "R" resonates well with the school motto ("Let there be light"), as well as with the average temperatures on campus. The Sun rises in the East, which is geographically correct.

I have a hard time understanding two points, though. First, why is there the need to repeat "University of California" when "UC" is already present -- this just adds to the visual clutter. Positioning of the letter "U" in "University" just above the "I" is particularly unfortunate: it looks like a dot on "i", but not quite. Very confusing. Second, why is the letter "R" larger than the other letters? The fact that the "R" is the only decorated letter, as well as the fact that it stands immediately to the right of the gold-blue boundary makes it stand out sufficiently enough.

This being said, here is what a corrected logotype could look like:

Clean lines allow the rhythm of the type to express itself in a way literate people have come to accept as natural -- for a change, this logotype can be read with no special effort to segment the picture into sentences. "U", "C", and "R" are sufficiently different from the rest, which allows the audience to effortlessly perceive either the three-letter school acronym, or the full name, by continuing the movement of the eye from left to right.