Bob CollinsThere must be more to Austin, Minn., than Spam.
But you wouldn’t know by the proposed new logo for the southern Minnesota city. How’d you like to have this thing gracing the local water tower?
It was a functional logo that would’ve worked well if a sardine plant also relocated to the city. But, alas, the rollout of the new logo was a dud and it lasted just three weeks before the Austin City Council voted down the idea, according to the Austin Daily Herald.
Ironically the logo, meant to show employers how much talent is available in the city, was designed by a Minneapolis firm.
In a letter to the newspaper this week, several city officials defended the choice:
We sought community input in the process with the My Three Words survey which was open to the public and promoted from May to July 2013. The project was kicked off with community meetings on Aug.7 and 8, 2013. More than 100 residents attended three meetings held over those two days. The Haberman team interviewed about 50 people they met on the street or in the course of touring our community and attending the Riverland Community College production of SPAM-a-Lot.
Apparently, at least 50 people responded, “can” when they were asked to sum up Austin.
“Before we worry about a logo, maybe we should worry about who we are,” resident Brittany Perry said at a hearing this week.
The action concludes a year-long effort and $58,000 that has been spent so far on the rebranding campaign, but the newspaper’s editorial this week, which endorsed killing the proposed logo, challenged residents to do better:
“If Austin is truly ‘talent packed,’ there will be no shortage of ideas,” it said.
