Presentation of a new brand for the City of Rossland couldn’t wrangle council into accepting it.
City council strayed from the herd in the Rossland-wide branding project when it decided to not accept a new watermark for the corporate identity of the City of Rossland.
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 several councilors had a problem with the appearance of the design, and the fact they were not given any other options to choose from.
Council was only presented with the final design at their regular meeting April 22, and no drafts of any kind before this, said councilor Jill Spearn.
“Shouldn’t we have had some input to this? Absolutely,” she said. “Now we are caught between a rock and a hard place, making a decision that is not favourable tonight.”
Councilor Jody Blomme, who also sits on the chamber of commerce board, said council needed to be presented with more than one choice.
“At the chamber of commerce we had several options,” she said, noting around four versions, in two different sets, as well as some colour tweaks, had come to the chamber board for input.
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.
“But it would be nice to explore some other treats on this style,” she said.
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.”
The new wordmark was slated for all City of Rossland materials (website, letterhead, email signatures, business cards and truck stickers).
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.
“Most of the changes are digital and will be easy to implement with very little staff time,” said City deputy CAO Tracey Butler.
The disadvantage of council turning the design down was the other two groups had made its decision, said Mayor Greg Granstrom.
“So, then if we were to change what we’re presented with, in order for it to be consistent, and the point of the whole thing, the others would have to change theirs as well,” he said.
Then motion was defeated.
In its stead, council approved a motion that it be presented with alternative designs in the wordmark project.
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