Shelton backs off new logo

A mountainous landscape line featuring a single tree received the most votes for the City of Shelton’s new logo, but the Shelton City Council has decided to go back to the drawing board.

In online voting on the city’s website from Nov. 3 through Dec. 8, residents preferred the logo to two other choices, one that featured a blue heron, another that showed a two-person handsaw. The poll received 626 responses, said Mary Ricker, the city’s communications and government relations specialist.

At a Dec. 14 work session dedicated to the new logo, all seven council members offered comments on the proposed designs, the process and the goal of the exercise. A central question that emerged is whether the new logo would simply be a new design, or be focused on a rebranding of the city.

“What I hear is we start with a clean slate and try again,” said City Manager Jeff Niten.

He added, “If none of these are right, we’ll start over. That’s not a problem.”

At an Oct. 26 at a council study session, Ricker said the uses for the logo include the city website, street and park signs, city flags and letterheads.

The current logo, with some modifications, has been used by the city since 1990. The city hired the company Joyray to design the proposed logos.

Two goals were set for the city logo, Ricker said at the Oct. 26 session. Residents need to feel the logo represents them, and the logo needs to support the city’s efforts with economic development, she said. Ricker showed five proposed logo designs, and the council followed the recommendation to whittle them down to three finalists.

In the voting process, participants ranked the three images from most preferred to least.

Every council member offered thoughts on the new logo process.

Deidre Peterson said wants to a mechanism on the polling to track the comments on the proposed logos, which she had suggested at an earlier workshop.

Eric Onisko said he still likes the two-person saw, but he’s not very enthusiastic about any of the three proposed designs. The pubic should be polled again, this time with the option “none of the above,” he said.

James Boad said he didn’t like any of the three proposed designs, and heard from others who felt the same. People also suggested the city get local artists involved in suggesting a design, he said.

Mayor Kevin Dorcy, who was presiding over his final meeting as his term expires, said he likes the two-person saw design.

“We’re still a logging community, we still have a pretty large mill at the end of town,” he said.

Miguel Gutierrez said he believes the two-person saw would look good on T-shirts, but the symbol doesn’t represent the town or where it wants to be. He said he’s only seen a blue heron once during his seven years living in Shelton.

If the city is focusing merely on the logo, it should let local children draw suggestions, Gutierrez said.

“If we’re going to do a Shelton thing, let’s ask the kids,” he said.

Kathy McDowell said the mountains on the voter-winning logo should be taller. She suggested it be altered to resemble Mount Washington, named for its likeness to George Washington’s face in profile.

Joe Schmit said he is not opposed to going back to the drawing board. He said he’s also not opposed to any of the three proposed logo designs, and added that they look professional and modern.

But in choosing a representative image, “Are we turning the page or not?’ ” Schmit asked.

“If we’re going to rebrand the city, let’s rebrand the city,” he said.