logo

Stew Lilker’s

Columbia County Observer

Real news for working families.  An online news service

Lake City

Lake City Picks Interim Logo – Councilwoman Moses Ready to Move Without Public Input 


The City did not ask for other designer's ideas. Instead, Justin Simmons provided four ideas on his theme. The Council chose the upper left. ++ enlarge

LAKE CITY, FL – Last night, Mayor Steve Witt began the City Council logo discussion: "I think this is something the City needs to get out there and get some feedback. This is for discussion tonight. It is not necessarily to do anything permanent." Councilwoman Moses didn't agree: "I love this. It's simple. It's our fountain that everybody can relate to. I really don't know why we're waiting. If anybody likes it as well, why we wouldn't go ahead?"

After Mayor Witt's opening remarks City Manager Johnson explained that the City retired the old logo last year and that he "initiated the logo with the dark blue square."

Mr. Johnson said that after using the Johnson logo for a couple of months, he met with graphic designer Justin Simmons, Assistant City Manager Grayson Cason and his administrate assistant Joyce Burner.

"We came up with this logo," he said.


In 2010, Lake City was the "Gateway to Florida."

Mr. Johnson continued, "Lake City has been designated as Florida's Gateway and has been for many, many years."

A Google search has not located anything to substantiate Mr. Johnson's statement.

In recent  times the slogan, "Florida's Gateway" appeared simultaneously with Mr. Simmons.

City Manager: said he was open to another design

Mr. Johnson told the Council, "I asked the Mayor to discuss this tonight for consideration... The staff is just asking for consideration to give official sanction of the City to use this on an interim basis until a final seal or logo has been crafted and approved officially by the City Council."

Mr. Johnson did not explain why it took so long to come up with the recent logo proposals.

Mr. Johnson said, "Most cities show the date of incorporation on their logos." A Google check using the search term – images: florida city logos – shows that most cities do not show the date of incorporation.

Councilwoman Moses: Why wait?

Melinda Moses, who just began her second term as councilwoman, unopposed said, "I love this. It's simple. It's our fountain that everybody can relate to. I really don't know why we're waiting. If anybody likes it as well, why we wouldn't go ahead?"

Mayor Witt questioned whether the gold would show up when copied.


Mr. Simmons' design is problematic when copying to black and white.  ++ enlarge

Mr. Johnson said, "Justin can provide a design in a very high resolution format."

High resolution will not help the gold's fidelity when reproduced in black and white.

Mr. Johnson said the logo had been distributed to the Council prior to last night's meeting.

It was not made available with last night's agenda material.

Mr. Johnson opined, "There is no reason for people to view it negative in any way."

Councilman Ward said, "Put it out there and see what kind of feedback we get."

One Month

The Council moved to establish the logo as the interim logo for one month pending feedback from the public.

The Council will be acting on the Simmons design, the only design, at its first meeting in January.

The Council did not ask for additional submissions, nor did it explain how to comment on the now official interim logo.

Your reporter asked if there might be a branding issue with Columbia County being the "Gateway to Florida" and Lake City being "Florida's Gateway."

Mr. Johnson asked, "What's your point, Stew? I don't understand."

Ms. Moses said, "They're both the 'Gateway.'"

Comments (to add a comment go here)

On Nov. 6, 2016, a reader from Tampa wrote:

Looks like feathers to me. Will they always have a fountain in the lake? It looks nice, but if a person doesn't know about the fountain they may wonder. Most people probably don't give a flying f__k.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

On Nov. 6, 2016, C from Tampa wrote:

I read the story of Lake City's proposed new logo with interest. I was a Media Publishing Specialist at the University of South Florida before retiring. USF changed its logo several times during my 23 years there, as did the Career Center, the department where I worked.

Each time a logo was changed, 3 or 4 logos were submitted from which to choose and everyone had input. It was never just one and that's that. Many aspects were considered, including how it would reproduce via copier.

Mr. Johnson's not understanding the branding issue between Columbia County's "Gateway to Florida" and Lake City's "Florida's Gateway," is just one example of needing to think things through a bit.

I applaud Mayor Witt for not being trigger-happy and glad they're giving the interim logo a month before making it official.

 

This work by the Columbia County Observer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Calendar
 
 

Make a comment • click here •
All comments are displayed at the end of the article and are moderated.