SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — The City of Spokane Valley celebrated its 20th birthday last year. While a lot has changed over the past two decades, the city's logo has not.
"Our current logo is not as strong as it could be," City of Spokane Valley Communications Manager Jill Smith said. "Our colors are a little dated. Our font as well. It's very difficult to use at a small scale because the words are spread out so the design itself could be increased for usability."
Smith said the city has conducted three studies over the last seven years, surveying hundreds of residents. She said the vast majority think the current logo should be improved.
"All recommended that the city really was due for an update to our brand," Smith said. "So, our logo was perhaps not as strong as it could be, had a bit of a dated look."
The current logo is used on business cards, letter heads, city vehicles and park signs.
"How much will it cost the tax payers and man hours and money in changing over from what we have now?" one resident said during the public comment portion of Tuesday's meeting. "I am thinking that is a chunk of change when our priority is providing more police officers."
"No one is suggesting that we replace everything or spend money on replacing anything that currently uses the original logo.," Smith said. "This would simply move forward. So, if we're buying a new vehicle or if we need to replace letterhead business cards for example, we will begin to move forward with the new logo look and feel."
On Tuesday night, Smith presented council members with the new logo and asked for consensus to move forward.
"I'm not excited about changing the logo," council member Ben Wick said.
The council was tied 3-3 before council member Al Merkel changed his mind and gave it the green light to move forward.
Merkel also asked if any of the surveys indicated support for changing the city's name. He doesn't support that idea, however.
"Lot of citizens want to think about changing the name," Merkel said. "Was there anything in those surveys that said that would be an interesting thing to do, do move away from the Spokane Valley part?"
"That has come up a number of times, and we did look at it seriously and had consultants weigh in on it and every time, the message that came back was leave the name alone," city manager John Hohman said.
The city's logo won't officially change until council members pass a resolution. However, that could happen soon.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.