Like it, loathe it, love it or... lick it?

The Labour party’s new emblem – chosen after months of consultation and €20,883 worth of text messages – has elicited reactions as mixed as the electorate the party tries to attract.

Reactions have varied from those who thought the logo was “fresh” to those who thought the only thing fresh about it was that it reminded them of an ice-cream cone.

Even the Prime Minister chipped into the debate, saying the windswept flame was symptomatic of the party’s tendency to change direction with the wind, and that the party was hiding the recession by wasting its time on this rebranding exercise.

The Times also asked for comments from a design point of view. For Gattaldo, a Maltese-born award-winning artistic director based in the UK, the logo has its good points – “its legibility, its combination of freehand design and a font that is contemporary and crisp”. However he was not entirely convinced about the party’s decision to retain the torch.

“I’d love to know the reasons why the Labour Party chose to keep the torch. I have no doubt they’d still want to keep hold of its positive connotations of passion and ardour, associations which the faithful no doubt hold dear, but not necessarily the aggressive zealousness the party wants to distance itself from,” the designer said.

“A public competition is not the best way to come up with a design solution. Consultation with one’s design agency (or several agencies pitching for the job) is vital to decide upon a consistent image. This is an exercise in perception and goes deeper than an emblem.

“I personally think the party could have worked harder but I also understand the reluctance to make too big a change in a well-recognised emblem unless, of course, its baggage is unwelcome.”

UK-based designer and student Steve Scicluna said the logo signalled the party was trying to break away from its past, and that the clean typeface and overall look came across as “more neutral and less socialist than all their previous logos.”

However, he believes more time could have been invested in creating the logo: “The typeface could have come from any other recent logo and the flames on the torch are a simple digital painting brush tool.

“The overall format also does not reference or pay any respect whatsoever to the typically round PL logos that preceded it, which is either a very bold move or a pity, considering the party’s rich history.”

He thinks the logo selection process had its risks and that “more of an input from the party’s more experienced members would have benefitted the logo’s choice”.

Meanwhile, designer Emma Pullicino thought some aspects of the logo were quite clever: “The torch in the new logo subliminally incorporates a stylised version of the Maltese flag, which cleverly may not be so apparent at first glance.”

However she said that the use of white space in the flame design might make the logo difficult to reproduce on certain types of media, such as in embroidery.

Ms Pullicino said it was “interesting to note the absence of the clasping hand in the emblem, which may symbolise an ideological development of the party’s politics”.

The party said the new emblem would be officially presented on November 6, the 90th anniversary of the party, after being “finalised”.