October 25, 2004
Arlington Logo An 'Abomination'
When we reported in September how some residents of Arlington disliked the county's $39,000 logo, we assumed it would blow over. (One person said it made the Arlington House look 'drunk.') We were wrong.
Now, nearly two months since the unveiling, the Post reported yesterday that over 100 residents had signed a petition circulated by an activist seeking to restrict the logo's use or work towards a "complete rollback." The agitator, a retired journalist, told the Post he thinks the logo is an "abomination."
Meanwhile, county officials have set up a special webpage explaining and defending their logo, boasting the maligned graphic has won a "Silver Inkwell Award," and arguing the logo could help "brand" the County:
The new logo conceptually captures who we are as well as what we aspire to be as a community. The logo is evocative of our history and our traditions. At the same time, its clean, contemporary lines denote a community capable of transformation.A small pop-up window on the logo's cost argues it likely cost only 1/3 of the roughly $39,000 figure widely quoted by media, alleging the Unilever company spent $12 million on their logo.
Call us old fashioned, but we're a bit baffled by all this talk of "branding" a county government. We have always voted for officials who will effectively administer public policy and services, not channel regional zeitgeist.
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You brand a county to attract business and residents. I actually like the logo. Not stuffy (a horrible problem with many NoVa areas) and reflects the relatively laid back attitude of the established members of the Arlington community and the younger population that flocks to live in Arlington. Additionally, as logos go, it is easily reproducible and not too futzy. And $39,000, even if it is all of that, is a steal.
100 residents really isn't much of a petition for an area as populated as Arlington, is it? I also think they'd make a more compelling point if they had some alternate (and free?) logo to advocate.
Personally, I think it's a pretty blah logo. Blah at any price. But then again, I think that rather fits Arlington .
Then again, we have truly dismal mishmash of graphics for Bethesda (http://www.bethesda.org), and alas, we are a people without a branding.
Someone from Bethesda thinks Arlington is "blah?" I'll add that to the Annals of Communiques Between the Pot and the Kettle, vis-a-vis Blackness.
Seriously. Call Arlington's logo a "drunk abomination", but we are totally rebranding, with other drunk and abominable local governments, like Terre Haute, and West Orange.
Now c'mon, I didn't say Bethesda wasn't blah as well (it is).
It's government, not business people. Ditch the branding and just tax us less. That's enough to build all the brand loyalty you want.
But Arlington is drunk from Court House to Ballston.