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Rossland city brand on hold

Nearly all of council got together to decide to send ideas and four tentative designs for a new city watermark back to the designer.
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The city is still putting its brand on the design for a new city brand.

Nearly all of council got together to decide to send ideas and four tentative designs for a new city watermark—or logo—back to the designer with a newly struck committee in tow.

A trio of councillors—Jill Spearn, Jody Blomme and Kathy Moore—will meet with graphic designer Shelley Ackerman to come up with three designs that are more specific to what council wanted.

Most councillors wanted a simplified design, one that would be more recognizable and still contain some of the graphic elements representative of the modern Rossland.

Council was unable to come up with a recommendation based on the four choices they had been given by the designer.

“I didn't feel that any of the four were what I would wish for for Rossland, a brand that stands us as a community of heritage, or mountain bike riding, or anything we are trying to promote,” said Spearn. “I didn't get excited by any of these.”

No time table had been set for when the new designs would come back to council.

Tourism Rossland received a grant from Kootenay Rockies Tourism Community Opportunities Fund

for the Rossland wide branding project. The board of Tourism Rossland approved use of the grant

towards the costs of the City's (Chamber's and Library's) individual branding work.

At its meeting on April 22 council had previously resolved that they be presented with more alternatives to the single word mark design that had come forward for their approval.

As a result, the designer came forward with four designs for council's approval.

The word mark design is an identifying logo or stamp that would be used on the city's website, letterhead, email signatures, truck stickers and on business cards as stock was depleted.

Part of the city-wide branding project, the other parties in the project—including Tourism Rossland, the Rossland Chamber of Commerce and the Rossland Public Library—had approved the designs as presented. But the other city groups included in the branding project had options to choose from, while council did not.

The style of the brand was made to match the new sign the city had placed at its entranceways. That entranceway design was decided upon through a public process, said Blomme.  It did have a lot of involvement and was “sitting in the background” before it came out.

At its Feb. 12 meeting council had passed a motion to move forward with the city’s individual branding project using the grant money provided by Tourism Rossland from Kootenay Rockies Tourism Community Opportunities Fund.

The board of Tourism Rossland felt that the continued consistency of look, feel and colours was to “everyone’s advantage.”

New business cards would cost $710 for 10 boxes, while 22 new truck decals would be $407, costing the City $1,117 to change the design.

editor@rosslandnews.com