City signs may get a makeover if Vancouver councillors vote in favour of adopting a new logo at a meeting Wednesday.
The logo was revealed in a city staff report written last week, and is a simplified version of the current logo but uses slightly different shades of green and blue. The font is bolder in the new design, and the floral element in the top left of the old logo is gone.
"With all due respect to the designer, it appears that they went, found a font and typed it out, and put some colour to it, and we have a new logo for $8,000," Coun. George Affleck said.
The selection is very similar to the logo used by the City of Chilliwack, which follows the same text alignment but also includes an illustration of mountains on the left. Chilliwack's logo was designed following the creation of a task force in 2010 by a local firm called "Basecamp Creative."
The City of Vancouver has had the same logo for more than 10 years, and part of the idea behind the project was to create a new brand that is easily recognizable.
City staff asked the creative agency that offered the lowest bid on the contract to design something that would be clearly legible on municipal signage, social media accounts, websites and other places.
They also asked that the design be simplified so it is recognizable and understandable to those in the city for whom English is not a first language. More than half of Vancouver's population has a first language other than English, according to the 2016 "Quality of Living Index."
The total costs came in under $8,000, the report says, but the exact amount has not been made public. If approved, it will be phased in gradually over the next year, starting with new materials then updating older signage and other materials as they are replaced "to minimize costs."
Affleck said the price is a "pretty good deal, I suppose," but that he's concerned about the cost associated with replacing the current logo, and whether it was necessary in the first place.
Regardless of whether the change was necessary, the project's initial price tag is much lower than a temporary rebrand the city paid for in 2009, meant to be used as its logo during the Olympics.
A city logo touting Vancouver as the "green capital" left the city with a bill of $239,000 before tax, according to documents obtained by 24 Hours Vancouver under the Freedom of Information Act.
And Vancouver isn't the first city to make headlines over logos. The same year Vancouver revealed its costly "green capital" branding, the City of Kelowna faced copyright issues over its new logo.
That city spent more than $35,000 on public consultations before selecting a logo meant to mimic the natural beauty of the Okanagan, but the selection was very similar to that of an American real estate company. Ultimately, the logo was permitted and is still in use by the municipal government.
In Vancouver, staff said the wordmark up for voting on Wednesday has already been registered with the registrar of trade marks as an official mark in Canada.
Several designs were considered for Vancouver's rebrand, but the final design was in the city's official font – Gotham – and uses Pantone 363 for the green "City of" text, and Pantone 2945 for the blue "Vancouver" text. There are also black and white versions to be used when full colour isn't an option.
The report says the simplified logo "presents an updated image of the City of Vancouver as a modern, innovative and highly desirable place to live and work."
But some members of the public weren't impressed with the design.
"My eight-year-old could do that," one person told CTV News.
"I like the old one. I think I'd rather them spend (the money) on something else," another said.
A third called the logo "boring," and another person just laughed.
The logo will be discussed at the city's monthly "Policy and Strategic Priorities" meeting, starting at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. Also on the agenda are a review of the province's approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion and an update from the mayor's task force on mental health and addictions.
The agenda and related documents are available online.
This is what $8000.00 get you (for a logo design)
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Originally Posted by killramos
