The City of Lebanon has gone back to the drawing board with plans for a new city logo, accompanied by a fresh city slogan: “Build your journey here.”
The first logo proposal, presented at a council work session last spring, drew a less than favorable response from residents on social media.
Adoption of the new logo was on the agenda for last Tuesday night’s Lebanon City Council meeting held after the Record’s deadline. Readers can find out if it was adopted by checking the Record’s website, www.laclederecord.com
City Administrator Troy Schulte explained how the logo was created in a written report to the council. The process began about a year ago when the city began a rebranding process that Schulte said was intended to “modernize and simplify” the city logo and slogan.
“Community residents and stakeholders were invited to participate in a visioning process that developed some storylines around which the City could update its branding for use in tourism, economic development, city utilities and the City as a whole. Over 30 different concepts were developed for consideration by the city. City staff narrowed that list and presented its recommendation in a work session earlier this year,” Schulte said.
He acknowledged that the earlier concept was not well received.
“Public reception to the proposed logo was less than enthusiastic to say the least,” according to Schulte. “City staff then reassembled as many of those original participants that could attend a meeting and asked them for their opinions on a new logo and slogan. Those participants narrowed the 30 logo concepts to six and then, at a subsequent meeting, overwhelmingly selected the logo and slogan that is presented for your consideration,” Schulte said.
He said that the new logo will be used on all new equipment as it is purchased. The old logo will be slowly phased out as the city’s existing stockpiles of stationary and envelopes are used.
“The new slogan "Build Your Journey Here" will be incorporated into future tourism and economic development publications as they are developed in the future,” he said.
The city hired the firm of Chandler Thinks of Franklin, Tenn., to conduct research and design logo concepts for the city and city departments at a cost of $74,705. The proposed new logo would replace the old leaf logo the city has used since the 1990s.
