Burien City Council approves 'Refresh' city logo at Monday night's meeting

At Monday night’s Study Session, the Burien City Council voted to approve the following new ‘Refresh’ logo for the city: Cost to the city for this logo/branding development from Tacoma-based agency JayRay was $149,300. According to Maureen Hoffmann (a member of the Brand Advisory Committee), affirmative votes by those in attendance included Mayor Lucy Krakowiak, Councilmembers Steve Armstrong and Austin Bell. Voices of approval had been provided earlier to interim City Manager Tony Piasecki by Deputy Mayor Nancy Tosta, as well as Councilmembers Lauren Berkowitz and Bob Edgar. A hesitant approval was given by Councilmember Debi Wagner. “The City can now move on with this project and its implementation,” Hoffmann added. The cost to fully implement the new logo will be between an additional $100,000–$140,000 – which the city says it will phase in over time to save money – with the next goals listed as:

• City-owned communications channels, such as the city website, social media, as well as printed materials residents receive in the mail, like the PaRCs Department’s catalog and Burien Magazine
• Signs on streets, parks and buildings
• Decals on City-owned vehicles
• Badges and decals used on Public Works and Burien Police Department uniforms

The City said in a statement that a strong economy driving sales and other tax revenues is how the City pays for police services, infrastructure and other essential city services. “We want to tell a new story about the City – one that captures the community spirit, attractive location, and unique personalities of our diverse residents and businesses,” Interim City Manager Tony Piasecki said. We’re not sure if our unscientific poll had any sway (okay, we’re certain it did!), but as of 8 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2017, of the 476 responses to it, 53% – 254 votes – favored the ‘Refresh’ logo (read our previous coverage here). A local Brand Advisory Committee of designers and print specialists recommended a different new logo, this ‘Circle B’ one, which didn’t make the cut and received just 10% of the votes in our poll: Here’s more info from page 17 of Monday night’s Study Session packet:

The Council prioritized five Economic Development Goals and Actions for implementation starting in 2015, including Priority Council Action 3: Develop a Burien Brand. In 2014, the business community supported a B&O tax increase targeted at funding local economic development. The increase was implemented in 2015 and the subsequent branding initiative is funded from this B&O revenue. The City entered into a contract in 2015 with JayRay Ads & PR, Inc, an advertising and strategic communications agency, for the purpose of developing a new brand for the City. As part of the branding process, JayRay conducted extensive research and community outreach activities gathering input from residents, businesses, visitors, City Council and other community stakeholders. This included more than 400 online survey responses, dozens of phone interviews and several focus groups. In September 2016, the City Council was presented with a logo for potential adoption, but decided not to move forward with that logo due to concerns about reproduction and direction. A Brand Advisory Committee was then reconstituted with members from the local business, arts, printing and graphic design community to provide guidance to the consultant as part of the logo design process. The Brand Advisory Committee reviewed dozens of potential logo options the consultant had created over the course of the past year, and selected a final logo design as their recommended choice after several meetings. The committee was also tasked with providing guidance on design of a refresh of the current City of Burien logo as a second option. Both the ‘recommended’ logo, and the ‘refreshed’ logo will be presented to Council for consideration.

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