By Mark Carlisle

Independent Newsmedia

Glendale has a new logo, and City Council does not like the way it was selected.

City staff did not get Council approval of the city’s new logo of the letter G, and no public feedback survey was taken about the new logo.

Lauren Tolmachoff

“To overstep the authority of the Council and to go around us and do something like this cannot be. It cannot happen. And we better not do it again,” Cholla District Councilwoman Lauren Tolmachoff said in Tuesday’s Council workshop.

While Council rebuked staff over the process, it gave consensus to move forward with the new logo, which will officially be launched when the city launches its new website in June.

Personal reaction to the logo itself was mixed among Council members. Councilmen Ray Malnar and Ian Hugh said they like the logo. Vice Mayor Joyce Clark and Councilman Turner said they dislike it — Ms. Clark went as far as to say she hates it. Mayor Jerry Weiers and Councilman Jamie Aldama each said they didn’t dislike the logo, and Ms. Tolmachoff never gave her opinion of the logo, but focused on the process.

Glendale's new G logo, top, is compared to Google's logo, middle left, Gatorade's, middle right, the Green Bay Packers', bottom left, and the Glendale Chamber of Commerce's new logo, bottom right. The new logo, with an estimated cost of $65,000, is an uppercase G split by curved lines into three sections — one an orange-gold, one brick red and one grey. In Tuesday’s meeting, Ms. Clark held up other uppercase G logos from the dais: the Gatorade logo, the Green Bay Packers logo, the Glendale Chamber of Commerce’s new logo and the Google logo, which is similarly split into four differently colored sections.

“How about this one that looks eerily similar: Google logo. We’re going to have fun trademarking our logo,” Ms. Clark said.

The vice mayor also held up another logo she said she found available for 69 cents on an online stock logo website. The logo looked the most like Glendale’s, split into three sections by curved lines. It was not entirely identical, however.

“It didn’t take people but 10 minutes to go onto the internet and find out where this logo design originated from and how unoriginal and unique to our community it is,” Mr. Turner said.

The logo replaces the city’s logo adopted in 1987 of three pillars shaped like upside-down Ls that resemble the pillars at City Hall.

Staff is working on 45 projects for the new logo to be displayed, including the new website, street signs, city staff uniforms, city letterheads, utility bills, city vehicles, manhole covers and concrete imprints.

While digital logos would be changed instantly, tangible logos on things like signs and paper would be changed out as replacements are needed to save money, said Brent Stoddard, public affairs director. He noted the old logo would remain for a long time on more permanent fixtures like manhole covers.

Depending on the use, the G logo will be displayed alone, as the first letter in the word "Glendale" or above the word "Glendale." It will also have single-color versions.

Mr. Malnar said he didn’t think he liked the logo at first but began to like it more as he looked at it.

“I like the colors. I like the way it fits. I think it does good for Glendale,” he said.

Mr. Hugh said staff spoke to him about the logo, and he felt that they took his feedback.

“We’re the sports and entertainment district in the state of Arizona, and I wanted to see something bright and snappy. That’s what they gave us,” he said.

Ms. Clark disagreed, saying the city missed a chance to create an iconic logo like Phoenix’s.

“We squandered the opportunity to engage our public. We squandered the opportunity to develop something truly iconic. We have done neither. And that is very disappointing,” she said.

Process

The city logos for Phoenix, left, Mesa, center, and Sun City, right, were all designed by Catapult Strategic Design, which designed Glendale's new logo. Glendale hired Catapult Strategic Design, a Valley-based company that designed the Phoenix, Sun City and Mesa logos as well as company logos, in June 2018.

Ms. Tolmachoff noted the staff report presented to Council and the city’s contract with Catapult stated the public would be surveyed and Council would have final approval of a logo, and pointed out that neither of those things happened in the process.

“It’s my understanding that that’s what was approved by the Council, and I don’t know who has the authority to just decide to do something else.”

She also said that she’s not sure if she would have voted to approve the contract, or if Council would have reached a consensus to approve the contract, if they’d known at the time that this would be the process.

Kevin Phelps

City Manager Kevin Phelps took responsibility and apologized for the miscommunication, saying he approved the decisions without looking back to the original staff report. Council members accepted his apology and said lessons could be learned for the future.

There was some public input in the project.

In September, a stakeholder group that included AEG, which operates Gila River Arena, SMG, which operates State Farm Stadium, Macerich, which operates the Arrowhead Towne Center mall, Yam properties, which operates Westgate Entertainment District, members of city staff, a development consultant and one Glendale resident reviewed design themes they wanted the logo to include.

Mr. Stoddard also noted that in 2016, when the city was first considering a new logo, a stakeholders group made up of members of the city’s boards and commissioners, who are appointed by the Council to be community leaders, also gave direction on design themes.

Staff and Catapult did not receive feedback on the finished logo itself. Mr. Stoddard said this was too subjective and would turn into a “popularity contest.”

Ms. Tolmachoff pointed out that at $2,000 clause of the contract with Catapult stipulates that Catapult will send out an email survey for public feedback, which did not take place. She and others pushed for the survey to be completed even though the logo had already been selected. Mr. Turner pointed out keeping the old logo is also an option if the public did not like the new logo.

Joyce Clark

Ms. Clark proposed starting the process over and starting a new contract for a logo, which she acknowledged would be “wasting $65,000 of taxpayer money,” but later changed her mind.

After Council decided to move forward with the new logo without a survey, staff did not mention whether the $2,000 for a survey would be subtracted from the $65,000 contract with Catapult.

Idea behind the logo

According to staff’s report, the circular shape of the G is meant to symbolize motion, progress and continuous improvement. The three segments represent the city’s people, business and the city staff, joined together to form Glendale. The opening of the G invites people into the circle, symbolizing a welcoming, inclusive and diverse city.

The orange-gold color is meant to be energizing, happy and friendly and represents prosperity aspiration for residents’ quality of life. The brick red is meant to be bold, powerful and dynamic and represents the aspiration of the business community.

The two colors together the southwest climate and Arizona’s sunsets.

The gray color represents the city government, which is like stone — timeless, stable and enduring.

Gang logo?

These designs are popular tattoos among the local Grandel gang. On the right is an Old English G surrounded by two swords. On the left is the gang's name above a Cardinal, meant to represent the Glendale High School Cardinals. Council members said constituents they spoke to raised concern that a local gang, the Grandel gang, uses an uppercase G as a logo and a popular tattoo among gang member. While the gang does use an uppercase G — usually with two swords around it — it is an Old English style G that bears little resemblance to the city’s new logo.