Starting this November, the City of Corvallis will be replacing its current 39-year-old logo with a brand new design.
According to Patrick Rollens, the City of Corvallis public information officer, this change will help bring Corvallis up to date with modern communication needs and the city’s greater online presence.
“The needs of municipalities to communicate with the public, brand themselves, and describe city services in public, has really changed over the years,” said Rollens, “It has been almost four decades since our logo initially rolled out, and back then the most common place for the city logo to be used was at the top of a bill or letter.”
Rollens said that the original logo’s purpose was to serve as a seal, whereas the new logo is designed to appeal to modern media, where people see the logo more frequently.
“It was very much a seal that was intended to let you know that something was official. And in the intervening four decades, towns and cities all around the country have polished their image, branched out into social media and tried to improve the way they’re communicating with the public.”
According to Rollens, the city decided to work with local design group Madison Ave Collective on this project after a competitive bidding process, due to their long history as city partners.
“We were really interested in talking to MAC because they’re our neighbors,” said Rollens, “They have also done the logo for several partner agencies right here in town, including Benton County and the logo redesign and branding for Visit Corvallis, which is our local tourism agency. So they have really deep roots, specifically working with government agencies.”
In addition to the logo, the city is rolling out a new branding system consisting of official icons, fonts and a color palette.
Rollens said the contract with MAC came to a total of $30,000 over the six months in which the logo underwent numerous revisions. Rollens also said that the City asked MAC to work with a volunteer citizens review board to best make sure the logo reflected the local community.
“They would bring their ideas to me, but then they’d also bring them to the review panel, who are folks who work in local businesses, communications, marketing and tourism,” said Rollens. “It was great to see folks in the community kind of come together and help us make a decision.”
The logo rollout will start Nov. 1, but it will take up to two years until it is fully completed. Rollens also mentioned that the rollout will take sustainability into question.
“We’re already working behind the scenes this month to transition a lot of the low-hanging fruit like digital media where you can just swap out a file,” said Rollens, “But there’s going to be a lot of stuff that doesn’t immediately change. For staff uniforms that have patches on the shoulder, we want to wait until those uniforms wear out rather than destroy them. I think people are going to see the old logo in use in the community for probably 18 to 24 months during this transition period.”
According to Rollens, public resistance to logo changes is common, especially with ones used as long as the current city symbol.
“Change is not easy, and I don’t think anybody would say that they particularly love our current logo,” said Rollens, “The fact is, it’s been around for so long, it’s just difficult to imagine the City of Corvallis without it. But we can change things. It’s the year 2024, we can make prudent changes and try to offer a different way of doing things for our community. I think in a short period of time, it’ll be pretty well accepted.”