GREENFIELD — In an effort to foster a cohesive style of logos and social media posts across departments, the Mayor’s Office is seeking feedback from residents to determine what color schemes, fonts and writing styles work best for Greenfield’s communications.
Presenting the vastly different logo styles between city entities such as the Greenfield Public Library, the Recreation Department, the Fire Department and the Police Department, Communications Director Jonathon Weber explained that the city’s lack of consistency in branding may cause confusion as to whether organizations are city-run.
“Part of this is about making sure that the city has that consistent look, so that if someone sees the logo for the library or for the Senior Center or for the Recreation Department, they know that that’s a city entity that they’re looking at,” Weber explained. “In one of the conversations I had with staff at the library, they specifically said [they] have patrons who don’t know that [the library is] part of the city. … It’s really important that taxpayers and residents, when they see the city brand, they understand that it’s a part of the city that’s funded by them and accountable to them.”
A community survey seeks opinions on which color schemes and styles residents prefer in a new design. Weber noted on Thursday that more than half of the roughly 180 people who had submitted responses so far say they hope to see the city use a green color scheme, Poet’s Seat Tower imagery and disability-accessible text, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The survey will remain open at tinyurl.com/GreenfieldDesignSurvey until 8 a.m. on March 9.
As part of the rebranding, Weber added, the city will also reconsider its writing style to ensure public announcements and social media posts are written in a similar fashion across departments and city entities.
“The way we present ourselves speaks to who we are and where we’re going,” Mayor Ginny Desorgher said in a statement. “The city’s brand is the most visible identity for the Greenfield community, and so it carries potential to spur economic development, deepen our communal sense of self and increase trust in government. This branding update will honor our heritage while updating our look and feel.”
The city will not purchase new equipment or alter existing equipment, such as police cruisers or fire trucks, to reflect the new city logo. Logos for the city’s Police and Fire departments, he said, will likely be different than other departments.
“Police and fire are kind of interesting, because they kind of are their own nationally or even internationally recognizable brands. Fire, for example, has the Maltese cross on all of their equipment — that’s their primary logo, actually,” Weber said. “Those departments are going to be different from the others, but we are going to look at ways to still have some harmony there, whether that’s them using the tower logo more often or something else.”
Weber said the color schemes that are being considered are compliant with ADA guidelines and expected to be screen-friendly. He noted that the rebranding effort is going to be handled internally and at no cost, other than city employee labor, to the taxpayers.
The city will hold a public feedback workshop in the spring or early summer to get the community’s opinion on a new city brand.