As Dave Barry says, "I am not making this up." [div class="mxb"]A new FBI-style crime-fighting agency called the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has been launched in the UK, complete with a logo designed to scare the living daylights out of criminals. I know I'd be quaking in my boots if anyone with a logo this cool was after me. Ooooh, scary!
[hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"] [div class="sh"]SOCA Psychs Criminals with Thundercats-like Logo[font size="1"][span class="byl"]
By Denise Winterman - [/span][span class="byd"]BBC News Magazine [/span][/font] [!-- S IIMA --] [/div][/div] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"] [tbody][tr][td] [img alt="" src="vny!://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41526000/gif/_41526008_soca2_203.gif" border="0" height="196" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"] [/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table]
A new FBI-style crime-fighting agency has been launched in the UK, but what's its big cat logo all about? [/p] If you're launching yourself as Britain's FBI and say you will make the lives of organised criminals "hell" then you need a dynamic logo to match the job. [/p] The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has chosen a fierce big cat bearing its fangs and leaping over a stylised silver globe, with a crown capping it all. [/p] It's bold but bears a striking resemblance to the logo of the 1980s children's cartoon series Thundercats. So was the comparison to the show - which featured humanoid cats battling evil mutants in the Earth's distant future - intentional? Soca declined to comment. [/p] One thing's for sure, it's a far cry from traditional police badges and those of Soca's predecessors. The National Crime Squad used a standard police helmet badge with a red and yellow flower at its centre and the National Criminal Intelligence Service used its initials with a sword symbol. [/p] So what is the logo all about and what does it say about Soca? The organisation itself is not willing to shed any light on the subject. [/p]'Butch' [/p] "It's not our policy to comment on the logo or the agency itself, we want to keep a low profile," says a spokesman. Very cloak and dagger. [/p] So the Magazine asked Patrick Cox, the executive creative director of Wolff Olins, one of the country's biggest branding companies, for his opinion. He says the logo is not very sophisticated but gets a certain message across. [/p] "It is a butch translation of a butch organisation," he says. "It uses a sharp-clawed cat to get across the message that the organisation has sharp claws and will use them to get their targets." [/p] He looked at the four key elements: [/p][div class="ch1"]THE CROWN[/div] [!-- S IIMA --] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"] [tbody][tr][td] [div] [img alt="Thundercats logo" src="vny!://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41524000/jpg/_41524588_thundercats.203.jpg" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"] [div class="cap"]Thundercats - and Soca - are go![/div] [/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IIMA --]The Soca logo is capped with a stylised version of the Royal crown familiar from other police insignia known as "helmet plates". The royal insignia is known as the Edward Crown, or Queen's Crown. [/p] "It represents something traditional but with a modern, stylised twist," says Mr Cox. "It's saying the organisation is legitimate but works in a new, more modern way. [/p] "It has overtones of movies or cartoons and looks like a throwing star - as if it could be ripped from the logo and use to kill someone - reinforcing the go-getting attitude of the organisation."[/p][div class="ch1"]THE BIG CAT[/div] The logo is dominated by a fierce big cat baring its fangs, which looks like a panther or a sabre-toothed tiger. [/p] "The big cat is trying to get across the strength and aggression of Soca," he says. "It is telling criminals that they will come and get them. [/p] "It is a representation of what they want their methods to be seen as - fierce and relentless." [/p]GLOBE LINES [/p] [!-- S IIMA --] [table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"] [tbody][tr][td] [div] [img alt="Tony Blair" src="vny!://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41525000/jpg/_41525394_soca.203.jpg" border="0" height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="203"] [div class="cap"]Blair officially launched Soca[/div] [/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!-- E IIMA --] The big cat is leaping over the stylised silver globe, which has lines running along it on the left-hand side. [/p] "The lines running along the globe have dots on each and represent a flow of information globally," he says. "It says Soca will work with organisations across the world and swap information to get the criminals it wants. [/p] "It says this organisation is not about PCs on bike, not Dixon of Dock Green stuff, this is a modern crime-fighting force. [/p]GLOBE GRID[/p] On its right-hand side of the globe is a grid. [/p] "The globe is about the international nature of the organisation and says it will target criminals across the world," he says. [/p] "The grid on the right reinforce this message, that Soca will travel anywhere in the world to get its man and the criminals have nowhere to hide." [/p] Summing up, Mr Cox says the logo is very Western and international, something new for a police organisation in this country but nothing new when it comes to design. [/p] "It is very much in the manner of what you imagine would be used in a Jackie Chan movie, if they need a logo for some aggressive agency. It's not very sophisticated." [/p]
