[Minnesail]

Since the mid-70s the official logo of Minneapolis has been two stylized sailboats next to our "City of Lakes" motto and the city name. It's on everything from our garbage trucks to the mayor's stationary.

The powers that be decided that we should be pulled from the 70s up to at least the late 90s, so they commissioned a re-design of the logo that features a more modern color scheme and a better looking sailboat.

But there was a chorus of "It will cost too much" and "People will be confused" and "Umm, why exactly is our logo a sailboat anyway?" and in the end the city council decided to stay with the old logo.
Council rejects new sailboat logo in favor of old sailboat logo

City politics, so fun. Are the lakes open yet? I wanna go sailing.

 

[hellosailor]

Every city or state eventually makes that mistake. Someone thinks they are an artiste, or they have a nephew who needs the contract...

What any design professional would tell them is that no one likes to see standards changed. Exxon brought back the Tiger. RCA brought back Nipper. Getting rid of old logos and graphics gets rid of the entire old identity and legacy, often not a good thing. Well, unless you're trying to divorce Charlie Manson and it is time for a change.

The excuses are often clever and creative, in NYS they needed new license plates because the old style was "not legible enough" and it was a safety issue, not just style. Ahuh. Which is why they cancelled the new ones and the change order because of the last recession and "it cost too much" even though it was necessary for safety. And each change was "necessary" in some same way. (Not really.)

The old logo for Minneapolis was one color. The new one is four spot colors. That alone would cost a bloody fortune in increased printing costs. Tell your politicians to stick to picking pockets, and stop messing with the crayons.

 

[SloopJonB]

That sort of meaningless nonsense is the hallmark of people with little or no imagination.

It's rampant in the corporate world - every time a new VP took over my section of the bank they would change its name. After 22 years it was back to the same one it was when I started. Big costs changing everything with logo's for no purpose.

I think they think it makes it look like they're accomplishing something - "Putting their stamp on it".