Rock Beats
New look for City logo
Sharp-eyed observers might notice some changes to the City’s distinctive logo popping up in the coming months. The 12-year-old logo has been given a modest make-over in an effort to keep the brand fresh and current for growing digital media. In addition, all departments will have a version of the logo that includes the department name.
Making a mark
The logo was launched in May 2002 after the City did an extensive study on its economic development efforts. Among many suggestions, the study recommended the City make a more deliberate effort to brand itself.
Before 2002, the City didn’t have a logo. The City seal was used as a logo but it wasn’t distinctive from any other seal. Some departments had their own logos but there was no cohesive visual identity for the City.
“The idea of cities and counties using the same branding techniques as the private sector was really beginning to take off at that time,” says Will Hampton, communications director. “Developing a logo and tagline was part of that process.”
The City hired a firm to research what residents thought about the City of Round Rock. They interviewed people in the community, businesses, councilmembers, employees and more.
“We found that three things set the City apart: planning, a business-like attitude and a focus on economic development,” says Will. “The City’s brand could best be described as “success”: successful schools, successful businesses, successful City services. The tagline — Purpose. Passion. Prosperity. — was the embodiment of that idea.”
With the logo’s launch, the City worked to create one visual identity that can be immediately identified.
“Creating that sort of recognition takes time and “impressions” – on business cards, on letter head, on vehicles,” says Will.
With time, the brush stroke star – or mark – has become associated with the City of Round Rock.
“I realized how effective we’d been when a 3rd grader recognized the logo on my shirt and said, ‘You’re with the City!’ When a child knows the mark, we’ve had success,” says Will.
Keeping current
With the logo being as recognizable as it is, it seemed unnecessary to do a new design but the City wanted to make some changes to refresh the look and keep it contemporary as well as address some technical issues.
“It’s been 12 years since the launch, so it seemed like a good time to review design trends and make a few tweaks. We wanted to keep the brush-stroke star but update other aspects,” says Will.
Most notably, the tagline has been removed and the font has been changed.
“We felt the tagline had served its purpose,” says Will. “Taglines aren’t as prominent now as they were in the early 2000s. Also, the tagline becomes hard to read at small sizes and many people look at our content on mobile phones.”
Digital concerns were also a factor in changing the font to Play, a free Google font that is available on websites. “Web fonts” are fonts designed for screen use that the viewer can see on a website even if they are not installed on the viewer’s computer. Matrix, the font originally used in the logo, is a proprietary font. Use of this font on the website was restricted to static images.
“We are working on a redesign of the City’s website using a responsive design,” says Will. “That means the site adjusts the way it displays depending on the device you’re using. We wanted more flexibility in using the logo on the new site and a static image was very limiting. We wanted a font that would display crisply in all digital media.”
Play is also a clean, modern font that is easy to read and displays clearly. The treatement for the City’s name also uses color and font thickness to separate Round Rock and Texas and – steady there, grammar purists – eliminates the comma.
“We want to keep in step with current design trends and the color treatment for text is very popular now,” says Will. “Also, it brings in another note of our logo red and adds interest.”
As for the comma, that comes under the heading of lessons learned.
“We’ve had a long time to wrestle with all the little things that can trip you up when using a logo and we’ve tried to address them,” says Will. “The comma, periods and dividing line, for instance, are a pain to embroider on a shirt because they are so small. We hope the refresh will take of care of some of these issues.”
Hip to be square
Another lesson learned is the need to have a square version of the logo available. Most logos are either square or round but the City’s logo is a rectangle. The odd size often created problems as the logo would be made so small it was unreadable.
“Format constraints can make the rectangle difficult to use,” says Will. “We know now that sometimes you really need a square logo. We never had that before.”
Department logos
The refresh also includes logos that have department names where the tagline used to be. These logos will be used on letterhead, business cards and other pieces as the department sees fit.
“We will be creating a style guide for the new logo,” says Will. “We still have some things to work out, especially about when to use department logos and when to use the standard logo.”
Rollout
Since the refresh is a subtle change, the City will not be doing a major launch. The rollout will proceed slowly. The new logo is already turning up in some places and the old logo will not disappear overnight.
“We’re doing a soft rollout,” says Will. “It’s not a radical change and we’ll move slowly to get everything updated. Letterhead will probably be first and we’ll make it available for people working on documents and fliers. We know people will be eager to use it.”
Get in touch with Will at 218-5409 if you have any questions about the logo.