Batavia logo saga finally ends

BATAVIA – The creation of a new logo for the city of Batavia has played out like a Norse saga, replete with colorful imagery, prosaic language and ceaseless struggle.

The heroine of this tale is Laura Newman, who has been on a quest to find a new municipal symbol ever since she was named Batavia city administrator more than three years ago.

Newman’s battle-scarred champion is Griffin Price, who emerged in the later chapters of this epic story when he was hired as the city’s communications manager.

Price was tasked by Newman to obtain the desired heraldic image for the city, asking the ambitious young man to triumph where contract consultants had failed.

Sitting in judgment throughout this seemingly endless ordeal has been the Batavia City Council, with aldermen mercilessly dissecting proposed logo designs before tossing them aside.

At a committee meeting on Tuesday, the Batavia logo saga reached a climax. Aldermen finally settled on a design, providing Newman with the grail she has so eagerly sought.

Fittingly, the council’s action did not come without drama.

In what was apparently the first time in the history of the Batavia City Council, aldermen decided a question of public policy not with a roll-call vote, but on a secret ballot.

A week earlier, they had been shown three logo designs, all featuring the iconic Batavia windmill as the key graphic element. For their final vote, aldermen were presented with a fourth design as well.

That image, essentially a variation on one of the other three proposals, was selected by the aldermen on their secret vote.

The council ranked each of the four proposals. Newman tallied the paper ballots and said the winning design was the clear favorite. Aldermen then ratified their selection on a roll-call vote to make it official.

The windmill has a three-dimensional appearance and seems to emerge from a border enclosing the windmill and a wide, undulating white line representing the Fox River or perhaps the bike trail depending on the viewer’s interpretation. A blue sky and green earth provide color.

Below the graphic element is the legend “City of Batavia” rendered in a modern typeface and two shades of blue.

The new design will replace the city’s well-worn logo of more than 35 years.

When Newman was hired as city administrator, she quickly decided that the city needed to replace the weather-beaten wooden signs greeting motorists along the key gateways into the community. Creating a new logo was part of the plan.

Some aldermen were resistant to the idea of a new city symbol. They argued that there was no reason to change the current logo, which features drawings of windmill blades above Fermilab’s Wilson Hall, along with the city’s name, the legend “Since 1833,” and a motto, “City of Energy.”

But Newman persisted, and her campaign for a new logo morphed into a full-blown branding project. Winnetka-based graphic design firm Sparc was commissioned to create the new logo.

A community survey was performed and the consultants brainstormed.

But perils lay ahead. The aldermen were critical of the drawn-out process, which stretched to nearly a year, and were angry that they had not been interviewed by the consultants as promised.

The interviews eventually were conducted, but the well had been poisoned.

When Sparc rolled out its logo design, aldermen were underwhelmed.

They found the simple windmill representation to be serviceable, but they did not care much for the typeface, nor the city’s name being rendered entirely in lower case.

But most of all, they reacted with contempt for the tagline, “Powered by Neighbors.”

In a foreshadowing of things to come, 1st Ward Alderman Scott Salvati was one of the most vocal critics of the Sparc design.

The plan was shelved, but Newman was undeterred and took a different tack.

Newman commissioned designs for new, substantial gateway monument signs. The graphic design element was remarkably similar to the Sparc windmill, but obviously could be replaced.

When Price joined the city staff this past spring, he clearly received his marching orders from Newman and wasted no time to carry them out.

He appeared before the council to argue that it was time for the city to update its symbol.

Aldermen, exhausted and disillusioned, were leery of taking up the issue again. But Price was relentless.

The communications chief produced a logo of his own, with the help of a graphic design consultant with whom Price had partnered when he was working for the Lombard Park District and winning awards for his work.

Salvati, himself a graphic design professional, was highly critical, telling Price he should have produced multiple options for the council to consider.

In an uncomfortable moment, the two men sparred on the council floor. Price, while careful to defer to the aldermen as policy-makers, did not back down. But the council sent the logo back to the drawing board.

Third Ward Alderman Dan Chanzit emerged as the diplomatic peace-maker in this drama, bringing Price and Salvati together.

Along with 7th Ward Alderman Drew McFadden, they formed a task force to hammer out three new designs. After the rollout, they refined the favored design, which was the one finally selected.

So, the Batavia logo saga is finally coming to a happy conclusion. Newman gets the updated symbol she wanted and can move ahead with the gateway sign project next spring.

Price gets a feather in his cap and Chanzit builds on his reputation as a leader on the council.

Salvati ensured that the creative process prevailed and that the council retained its prerogatives. The 1st Ward alderman is resigning from the council because he is moving to Elburn, so the new logo represents his final accomplishment as he walks off into the sunset.