Most cities, towns, and municipalities across the United States have their own logos to symbolize themselves in the eyes of the public. However, they haven’t usually kept the same logo designs for more than a few decades. Updating and redesigning logos has always been standard practice and is generally well-received by the citizens of these cities.
City officials often look to reinvent their brand images by changing their city logos to redefine their political, social, and cultural identities. The hope is that rebranding themselves will attract more tourists and commerce to the cities. Unfortunately, current rebranding efforts in many cities are receiving unexpected pushback from its citizens.
Backlash to the New Visalia City Logo
Lately, there seems to be a trend of city officials choosing minimalist logo designs in their rebranding efforts. One of the most notable examples is the logo of the City of Visalia in California. Even though Visalia has redesigned its logo about six times over the last 70 years, the latest design was not well received by the citizens of the city.
On May 7th, 2024, the Visalia City Council released the image of Visalia’s new city logo for the first time. The updated logo was supposed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Visalia as an incorporated city. Instead, people thought the minimalist design of the new logo failed to capture the vast history of Visalia. The new simple logo design even captured international attention on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where it received mostly negative comments.
Since then, one local citizen has set up a petition to bring back the old Visalia City Logo, which more accurately represents the artistry and agriculture of the “tight-knit” community of Visalia. The petition has already gotten roughly 3,500 signatures and is well on its way to reaching its target goal of 4,000 signatures.
The new logo design cost the city almost $150,000 because they hired an outside graphic design firm to create the logo. In response to the backlash, the City Council decided to accept new logo design submissions from local artists. They received approximately 87 new logo design submissions. The design chosen was from a local artist named Lori Caccamo.
Other City Logo Disasters
Visalia was not the only city dealing with backlash to its new logo designs. Here are some other recent notable examples of similar situations in different cities:
- City of Florence, Alabama – In January 2022, Florence city officials spent nearly $25,000 to update their classic city logo to a simple “F!” logo design that had a stylish exclamation point. After it was released, it received backlash almost immediately. A petition to restore the old city logo has already received over 7,500 signatures, nearly reaching its 10,000-signature goal.
- City of Dublin, Georgia – In August 2023, the Dublin City Council updated its city logo design and posted the new logo to its Facebook channel. After receiving 100 comments with mixed feelings about the design, the City Manager ultimately decided to halt the city’s rebranding efforts due to the concern that the new logo doesn’t symbolize Irish history as the old one did.
How City Government Agencies Can Avoid Logo Issues in the Future
These logo disasters, along with city logo updates and redesigns, have cost local taxpayers many thousands of dollars. It is safe to say that city government officials across the country are looking for ways to avoid public backlash in the future when the time comes for them to update their logos.
Here are some viable solutions that might work for them:
1. Fielding Logo Designs
One lesson that can be learned from the Visalia City Logo debacle is that accepting multiple logo designs is more effective. If a City Council hires one expensive graphic design firm to create one logo design, it could become a financial and social nightmare for the city officials if it is not a well-received design. The City Council of Visalia learned that the hard way.
Therefore, city officials should allow local artists to submit dozens of different logo designs to the city. Not only will this give city officials more design options to choose from for a smaller price, but it will also allow local citizens familiar with the city to partake in the city’s rebranding efforts.
Some smaller towns and villages with minimal budgets could try hosting a logo competition, where they offer a small cash prize to the artist who submits the winning logo. The prize could be a few hundred dollars or even one thousand dollars, which is much cheaper than the nearly $150,000 that the Visalia City Council spent on its initial logo design.
2. Pull Together a Citizen’s Committee
Perhaps local city officials should not be the ones to decide on which logo design is used. Local citizens could put together a citizen’s committee that allows potential logo design options to be displayed to the public and open to public comment and criticism.
That way, local artists can revise their logo designs based on the feedback of other local citizens. Then, by the time they submit their logos to the City Council, the revised logos will already have support from the public. It takes the pressure off the City Council members because they don’t have to worry about choosing a logo design that the public won’t like.
3. Post the Logo Designs Online for Wide Feedback
Input from local citizens may not be enough. To ensure a city’s new logo doesn’t become the laughing stock of the entire world, city officials should post all logo design submissions online for the chance to receive international feedback from citizens in towns and cities across the globe.
City officials and citizens can post the logo designs in social media posts, newsletters, press releases, forums, blogs, and even YouTube videos. Doing this will help a city avoid future criticism of its chosen logo because it will allow the criticism to come in before the official logo is chosen.
Of course, people can be cruel sometimes by purposely posting negative comments about logos. However, if the overwhelming number of comments is positive or negative from a wider audience, that is usually a fair indicator of whether a logo design is good or not. The more input received about the logo design, the easier it will be to tell whether the criticism is valid.
For instance, suppose a particular logo design receives hundreds or even thousands of positive comments from people worldwide. In that case, it is a safe assumption that it is a good logo to use as the new official city logo.
4. No surprises
In conclusion, city officials should avoid a surprise unveiling of their new city logo. Visalia tried doing that back in May, and look at how badly it turned out for them. Sure, the drama over the logo backlash did turn Visalia into the story of many online and print news articles, but they were not positive stories.
Overall, city officials must remember to include their local citizens in the logo decision-making process. After all, they are the ones who genuinely symbolize the culture and essence of the city, so it is only fitting that they have a say in the logo design that represents them and their city.
