Why hometown rebrands are the hardest of all
Plus: There’s a new proactive playbook for fighting misinformation during a disaster
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at the challenges cities, towns, and counties face when they rebrand and how California Gov. Gavin Newsom is responding to misinformation about the fires in L.A.
Scroll to the end to see: a new font you can’t unsee 🔠
Why hometown rebrands are the hardest of all
There are few branding assignments more fraught than designing a logo for someone’s hometown. Unlike consumer brands, cities, towns, and counties are an intrinsic part of people’s identities. So when those places get a new logo that doesn’t communicate that identity in a way they recognize, you can bet local governments are going to hear about it.
Look no further than to the Facebook page of Westchester County, New York, where commenters panned the new county logo—its first new logo in more than 20 years. The uninspiring new mark has been roundly criticized, with many of its detractors pointing out that its letter “H” looks like the “H” from the logo of the dating app Hinge.
The county says the design is meant to convey connection. “The residents of Westchester County are linked,” Westchester County Executive George Latimer said in a statement. “This connection is symbolized by the hook that seamlessly joins the C and H in our logo. We’re linked by rail, road, and air. By culture. And most importantly, by choice.”
But not everyone is feeling that connection, and it’s not just graphic designers. “This is so bad that it’s made me care about something I didn’t think I cared about,” one person wrote.
The rebrand was part of a transition away from a county website with a “.com” domain and accompanying logo that featured the web address to a new “.gov” domain. Westchester County communications director Catherine Cioffi tells me the reaction hasn’t been all bad.
“When a decision involves style, opinions will always vary,” she says. “While we have received a very positive response overall, a few negative social media comments have garnered attention.”
For some communities, the blowback to a botched rebrand job can be so harsh it inspires change. The response last year to a rebrand for Visalia, California, was so intense that the city walked it back. While the city’s old logo needed an overhaul, the new minimalist logo to mark the city’s 150th anniversary was condemned for being boring and sterile.
The negative reaction to the new mark surprised even Visalia’s mayor, who assumed a ballot initiative taxing marijuana would be more controversial than the rebrand. The city went back to the drawing board and ended up going with a new logo created by a local designer that the city said it will use alongside its old “legacy” logo.
For residents, civic rebrands are deeply personal, but it’s more than just the design of it all. They’re also paying for it, too. Negative comments on the Westchester County page inevitably complain about the rebrand as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Rebranding cities, towns, and counties requires major buy-in from the community. While corporate rebrands have a business imperative behind them, municipalities would do well to communicate the “why” behind their new logos, be it the need to update an aging brand for a new generation or making their locale more compelling to attract new businesses, families, or tourists.
In Pocatello, Idaho, city leaders earmarked $83,000 to rebrand the city this year for the first time in 30 years and they said the goal is to attract business. “People will see us as a unified force for the community and it will actually draw businesses to Pocatello,” Pocatello spokeswoman Marlise Irby-Facer told East Idaho News. “It’s going to market the city of Pocatello, and the community.”
Municipalities should also know that pricey rebrands by out-of-town creative agencies are more likely to draw more scrutiny than work made by locals. Designers deserve to be compensated for their work, and in graphic design, you often get what you pay for, but some municipalities have found creative solutions to stay under budget. Flagstaff, Arizona is seeking input on three new logo options created in collaboration between the city and Northern Arizona University’s VisualDESIGN Lab, so the city could engage professional designers at no cost.
Best practices for rebranding your town, city, or county
Luis Fitch, an artist and designer who chaired Minnesota’s State Emblems Redesign Commission to redesign the state flag last year, says “ensuring community buy-in starts with inclusive engagement from the outset.”
“Municipalities must actively involve residents throughout the process, from gathering input on the design’s themes and symbols to hosting open forums or surveys that reflect the diverse voices in the community,” he says in an email.
Fitch says a comprehensive creative brief that outlined all those points for their flag and seal redesign process became their “blueprint to guide the entire redesign process, ensuring alignment with community values and providing a clear framework for decisions.” Celebrating the finished product with a story that connects it to the people was also essential.
“The more residents see themselves and their values reflected in the design, the stronger the support and pride in the finished work,” he says.
Even when communities try to do everything right, a new logo rollout might not go smoothly. In Westchester County, the new logo was made with input from focus groups of county residents, employees, and thought leaders, plus a public survey that was open to all residents, says Cioffi, the county communications director. The top theme that came out of those conversations was how the county connects a diverse population to a wide variety of experiences, cultures, and opportunities. Residents said a new logo needed to be simple yet bold.
“Engaging with the public was not just important—it was essential to creating a new brand that resonates with our community,” she says. “After thorough review and voting, this logo was selected. We are proud of it, as it embodies many elements that make Westchester County unique.”
It’s true that rebrands never please everyone. Still, by clearly communicating to and with residents throughout the rebrand process, municipalities can end up with a logo that engages their communities in a positive way.
Previously in YELLO:
There’s a new proactive playbook for fighting misinformation during a disaster
As if public safety and elected officials don’t have enough on their plates during a disaster, lies amplified on social media add to the challenge. In Los Angeles, where fires have killed at least 24 people, burned some 60 square miles, and destroyed more than 12,000 structures in one of America’s great cities, the misinformation has been robust.
“There are hurricane-force winds of misinformation and lies about these fires,” California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday during a briefing with President Joe Biden. “It’s heartbreaking to see how this impacts real people who have lost everything and the response.”
Misinformation has become a regular occurrence during disasters (images of a shark swimming on a flooded highway have circulated online during hurricanes as far back as 2011). But in the Democratic stronghold of California, it’s taken on an especially frenzied bent, with some who blame an act of God on woke making outlandish claims that confirm their hyperpartisan priors.
Newsom’s responded by launching a “California Fire Facts” page debunking false claims, like that protections for delta smelt, a fish, contributed to a water shortage in Southern California (they didn’t) or that 60 fire trucks from Oregon were held up in Sacramento for emissions testing (out-of-state trucks receive a 15-minute safety and equipment inspection, and at the time one viral post making the false claim was posted, Oregon firefighters were already in L.A. at work, the site says).
Hosted on his campaign page paid for by Newsom for California, Newsom’s site is technically a political endeavor, but it also represents a more assertive approach to combating misinformation that echoes nonpartisan efforts taken last year by officials in North Carolina, where the state’s Department of Public Safety launched its own site, Ground Truth, to debunk false claims following Hurricane Helene.
The North Carolina site cites rumors, like that the state supposedly discouraged donations and volunteerism in the wake of the storm, with fact checks linking to where to donate and find volunteer opportunities. More out-there rumors listed on the site show you what public officials are up against, like that the storm was part of a “land grab” by the state or that weather manipulation played a role.
“No technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form,” the site says, which a conspiracy theorist might reason is exactly what a weather manipulator might say.
“The best we can do is provide [the public] with the most accurate information we have. Does everybody trust the government? No. We recognize this,” Brian Haines, a senior external affairs specialist at the department told the Wall Street Journal. Nevertheless, they fact checked.
“If you don’t steer the narrative to the truth, the lies will take over,” he said.
In the face of rabid misinformation on a social internet that’s fired all its fact checkers, officials who take a passive stance when it comes to combating lies during emergencies do so at their peril.
Have you seen this?
Stuart Spencer, mastermind of Reagan’s winning campaigns, dies at 97. A Republican political consultant who engineered Ronald Reagan’s winning campaigns for the California governor’s office and the U.S. presidency, transforming a B-movie actor into one of the most successful politicians of his time, died Jan. 12 at his home in Palm Desert, California. [The Washington Post]
Walmart’s bluer new brand is its biggest update in nearly two decades. “You may say it’s subtle, but there are meaningful differences,” Walmart CMO William White says. [Fast Company]
There’s a font made of Elon Musk’s jumping body contorted into the alphabet. It’s called “Times New Dumbass.”
History of political design
Presidential Ronald and Nancy Reagan slippers (ca. 1980s) "Are you wearing the --" The vintage Ronald and Nancy Reagan Presidential Slippers? Yeah I am.
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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