The blogs are abuzz with grousing about the new Prince William county logo.
It looks OK to me. Its a logo. Logos are generally meaningless. Hopefully they become well-know and instantly recognizable. Golden Arches, Windows, Playboy, Nike, Starbucks, Coke, Apple, Shell, Sinclair Oil, are all instantly recognizable.
Now there seems to be a rush for institutions and municipalities to join the logo race. Colleges, sports teams and clubs all have logos. How about towns and counties? Works for me. Its sort of difficult to work up much enthusiasm for a county logo. Anyone who uses an avatar has a logo.
The next item that seems to be rubbing folks raw is that the someone in the Office of Economic Development outsourced the design to a firm in Michigan. It seems that the someone used to work for the company. This behavior will have to be something that the supervisors work out with their employees. Folks are really torqued over the cost of $750 for the design. I don’t think that is unreasonable.
What I do think is unreasonable is the fact that so many people are moaning and bitching about a contract being handed to a Michigan company, thus denying local Prince William County business owners the right to compete and yet, no one so much as blinked when Corey Stewart threw a contract for $30,000 to one of his political lady friends in Fairfax. How is this logo-gate any different, other than it involves a lot less money?
In late September, early October of 2007, Corey decided to invite everyone in the county to Citizens Time when the illegal immigration resolution was being discussed and decided. I am not so sure why he wanted to invite everyone because he limited the speakers to 1 minute until the other supervisors called foul. Oh wait, it was an election year!!! Corey used discretionary funds to mail everyone in the county an invitation. A 12 or 13 hour long marathon Citizen’s Time was the result.
So what’s the difference? Corey’s printing andn mailing expenditures were 40 times more expensive than the logo design and no one even blinked.
I guess that was back in the days when money grew on trees. $30,000 of taxpayer money used to invite people to citizens time at a regular board of supervisors meeting should have not required a printed invitation. Keep this little expense in mind when the supervisors all start grandstanding and acting like tea party tight-wads on Tuesday. None of them blinked in 2007. There are 2 innocents. Pete Candland and Frank Principi had not been elected and were not a member of the board of supervisors then. They can roll their eyes all they want.
rc
Really, is this more important than the “Porkway”. With our limited resources lets be more strategic about our issues. This group could care less about the logo OR the cost – they’re only focused on being as cruel as possible toward the people involved and have been that way for months. Very destructive behavior.
Local vendors is a nice to do – we deal with millions and millions up here and the regulations are tough. But they have to be followed.
From everything printed on the topic it seems that all regulations were followed, the BOCS provided direction but perhaps the implementation could have been handled better. Not worthy of the death penalty. Now throwing contracts is illegal – but doesnt appear to be the situation here.
This is the way the world works…at least on the private side. Need something done? You pick up the phone and call someone you already know.
government doesn’t have as much leeway about who that call is to as private industry.
However, from what I have been told, the logo outsourcing amount was low enough that it didn’t have to go to bid.
I think Lyssa subtly hit the nail on the head….regarding the cruelty and hatefulness towards the people involved, ie some county employees. I have zero respect for people who sit behind a blog and post hatefulness based on rumor and gossip. I have just as little respect for those who comment who pick and needle.
Corey was highlighted in my post. However, I described his behavior. I didn’t name call or imply he was stupid. Not a day goes by some public servant isn’t catching it on some blog.
The bloggers need to stick to issues and not name call. For all Mr. Jenkins is a good guy now for opposing the logo, I remember about a year ago when he was not only Satan Incarnate but also a character out of a Starwars movie.
I’ll be the catty Art major that I am – surprise – and say that most art students at one of the local colleges could have done a better job. The logo screams boring and corporate. I know we as a county are trying to seduce corporations to relocate near George Mason but this logo looks like a big block wall with a small tunnel to darkness. Now feel free to add any more interpretations…
It’s not the initial expense that’s so off-putting but the money wasted to replace the present logo on all things Prince William.
@Censored
Boring is good when you think of some of the other things this county is known for.
Perhaps it could be added as things wear out rather than a race to include it on everything. I still haven’t decided why we need a logo.
I want a new seal with battlefield stuff on it. 2 great battles fought here. What do we have on a seal? A tobacco plant. The battlefield theme promotes tourism big time.
It’s the scale of the blocks that’s off-balance.
I think most out-of-towners think of the Civil War battles when they think of this area. So a cannon might be trite but appropriate. We also could use silhouettes of picnicking Yankees fleeing. (But that might also conjure up the recent negative image we’ve acquired over the immigration resolution – therefore, being appropriate still.)
There’s always an armpit….
I think the logo says what it needs to say to the audiences it targets. It was in color in The Washington Post today — free ad, basically. Not everyone will read the article, but they’ll remember the logo and say, what’s the big fuss? It’s professional, shows forward and upward movement, offers two colors with a dynamic small blue reaching out by way of the laser light connecting the two at the diagonal. If it was my decision, I wouldn’t abandon it now. A citizen committee made their recommendations on the overall branding process. The logo is one piece of that. If someone went ahead of the line leader, tell them to get back in line and move on.
“Liking” it is subjective. I was just in Grounds Central Station coffee shop with 10 paintings of coffee cups on the wall. I only liked one and didn’t buy any. But I enjoyed being surrounded by art while I met with my clients. And if the opportunity comes up to buy it for someone as a housewarming gift…I’ll be back. Grounds Central just rebranded (formerly Simply Sweet on Main, which sounds like an ice cream store) and the logo of a steaming cup of coffee supports the brand. http://www.groundscentralstation.com/
As for relationships and using outside vendors….the Chamber’s annual Spotlight on Prince William is contracted to a firm with headquarters in TN or KY…but the firm joins and supports Chambers near and far, and has put out award-winning publications – one of which was the local Chamber’s publication last year, which brought our region national attention. But the contracts for writing and photography have gone to local firms, in the past, so there is a balance, I think. Everything is relationships. When you hire someone, you look at the relationships they’re bringing to the table, too.
This “empty boxes” logo topic on the local political blogs, hyperlocal news sites, and now, the Washington Post has become like that old joke: “As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to fart in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.”
I didn’t see the WaPo on the subject.
Getting 8 people to agree on anything that is subjective is just too much to ask.
The logo doesn’t bother me. I don’t know enough about art to have an opinion though.
MY thoughts are as follows:
It looks like a cubist’s version of Sponge Bob Square Pants.
This is what you get when you task Prince William County with “Thinking out of the box” — you get a box within a box.
At least the colors could have been blue and butternut to remind us the the Civil War.
Well, the Board is supportive of residential development so I guess boxes are pertinent. With apologies to Pete Seeger or whoever wrote the lyrics:
There’s a beige one, and a white one
And a blue one and a beige one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same….
It looks like the North Vietnamese flag.
Little Boxes Little Boxes….
How fitting.
..and they’re all made out of ticky tacky….
Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There’s a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. It’s the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the logo. It’s the theme song from “Weeds”.
OMG, sorry, I posted before I read everyone’s comments. So original of me…
From 1962 – my parents sang it every time we passed a particular “development” on our way to the grandparents. Developments were a rather new concept my neck of the woods in the early 60’s.
Mine too.