City of Aspen Reveals New Logo Design
A new brand and logo design has been unveiled for Aspen, which is currently the 53rd largest city in the U.S. state of Colorado.
City councillors say the goal of the new design is to create more cohesion within the government and to communicate a “united visual message to Aspen’s residents, visitors, and businesses”.
“Having a consistent identity through our logo and branding helps people recognise the value they’re receiving for their tax dollars here in our community,” says Aspen government official, Sara Ott.
The roots of the project are said to date back to 2013, when Steve Skadron, having just been elected mayor, observed the City did not have a unified graphic look as well as no written guidelines for use of its visual materials.
In 2016 a formal rebranding effort got underway with a series of internal and external stakeholder interviews that included members of the community, members of the City’s boards and commissions, City Council members and staff. This phase was conducted by branding firm, Barnhart Communications.
“The City of Aspen has nearly 20 departments offering unique and valuable services, but when I opened the newspaper and saw ads for all that we do as a City, no two ads looked alike. There were separate logos, separate looks and it was confusing,” explains Skadron. “An identifiable symbol expresses our values and is a more professional approach. It was time to both refresh our look and create more standards about how we communicate that look going forward. The City is of course a strong community, but also needs a strong brand.”
Aspen-headquartered Kissane Viola Design (KVD) was subsequently tasked with creating the new design, which is claimed to pay homage to the history and iconography of the leaf of an aspen tree; the latter being the inspiration for the city’s name.
“Our team really kept in mind the values that the stakeholders shared with us,” says Katie Viola, designer and partner at KVD. “We wanted to incorporate a grove in the graphic to represent the interconnected community that Aspen is. One department in the City can’t work without another, it’s the same as a community. So, we have the past represented in the leaf but there is also a modernism to the look for our vision of the future and a nod to the Bauhaus tradition. It also speaks to Aspen as being an artistic and creative place.”
Source: City of Aspen
