Batavia rolls out new city logo designs

BATAVIA – Aldermen are considering three new graphic designs for a city of Batavia logo.

In September, a deadlocked Batavia City Council turned to Mayor Jeff Schielke to break a tie vote on a previous logo proposal and sent the issue back to the committee level.

Since then, a task force consisting of 1st Ward Alderman Scott Salvati, 3rd Ward Alderman Dan Chanzit and 7th Ward Alderman Drew McFadden has been working with Batavia Communications Director Griffin Price to come up with new designs.

The three new proposals, all featuring imagery depicting a windmill and the Fox River, were rolled out at a committee meeting on Nov. 19.

Aldermen were generally positive. Chanzit said the task force will meet again to evaluate their colleagues’ feedback before coming back with one design for a vote.

The favored design seems to be a three-dimensional Batavia windmill emerging from a circle with an undulating Fox River flowing below and the legend “City of Batavia” in a modern, block letter style underneath. The design features blue and green colors.

The second design is the most formal, with two-dimensional artwork of a windmill and the river enclosed in a six-sided border resembling a shield or a badge. This design also features blue and green for the color scheme, and “City of Batavia” in a sans-serif typeface below.

The third design is the most whimsical, with no border holding the design together. The windmill, river and cursive script typeface all suggest movement.

This design eliminates “City of,” and identifies the entity it represents only as “Batavia.” The color scheme is reduced to two shades of blue.

Six Ward Alderman Nick Cerone, who had been concerned that the council was getting bogged down in a design-by-committee trap, was pleasantly surprised by the new designs.

“I like them,” Cerone said. “I wasn’t necessarily in favor of going back to drawing board. I was cynical, because design-by-committee is difficult. I’m confident that whatever direction we go we’ll like it.”

City Administrator Laura Newman has been attempting for more than two years to get the council to adapt a new city logo.

Newman wants the council to approve a new design, in part, because the city is planning to replace the decrepit city signs greeting motorists entering Batavia at its key gateways.

In the late winter of 2018, aldermen voted down a logo proposal that also included a windmill graphic, but featured a tagline, “Powered by neighbors,” that was heavily criticized.

This year, new Communications Manager Griffin Price developed a design, consisting of windmill blades and a “City of Batavia” legend.

Although they initially reacted favorably, aldermen including Salvati said they wanted more choices, leading to the formation of the task force.

The current city logo, roughly 35 years old, features a graphic depicting Fermilab’s Wilson Hall and windmill blades, along with the motto “City of Energy” and the city’s name.