Think About It

Recently, the City of Atlanta decided its wastewater improvement program needed a clearer identity. So they gave the program a new name, Clean Water Atlanta, and set out to create a logo for the new name.

The city put four graphic artists on the job. They created more than a dozen logos. City employees voted on their favorites, which narrowed the field to five choices. And now, the city is asking the general public to make the final choice.

While it warms our heart to know that the city cares which logo we like best, we have to say that turning identity decision-making into a popularity contest is a bad idea.

The problem lies with the wide disparities of the five finalist logos. Each has an entirely different character and focus. Putting such a field to vote is like asking the public to identify the brand essence of Clean Water Atlanta.

It would be different if all five logos articulated the same brand essence, just with a slightly different flavor. Imagine, for instance, that Clean Water Atlanta wanted to have a theme song, and that it chose “Let It Snow” as the perfect song to represent its brand. It could let the public vote on whether it preferred the version by Dean Martin, the Carpenters, Ella Fitzgerald, Boyz II Men, or even the slightly off-key version sung by Mrs. Bosworth’s fourth-grade class.

Whichever the voters chose, it would still be “Let It Snow.” And it would still embody the agency’s focus and character.

But letting the public pick a logo from this slate of logos isn’t like asking them to pick their favorite rendition of “Let It Snow.” It’s more like letting the voters pick their favorite Christmas song. Sure, anything they pick will have a certain holiday feel, but no one could seriously argue that “O Holy Night” is essentially the same as “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”

The public is wholly unequipped to know which logo best represents Clean Water Atlanta. Like picking a favorite song, their choice of a favorite logo can be based only on personal tastes.

If the agency wants an effective logo, it needs to name its own tune first. And if the city thinks it doesn’t matter which logo it has, it shouldn’t be wasting public funds designing a mark at all.