Saturday 28 June 2008

Money for nothing

Holy gagstuff Batman! What a few weeks it's been.

Our new look Council in the past few weeks have approved 520 units, squashed onto a block of land at Woree; agreed that retrospective approval is okay for GlenCorp after they've built a 3 story high unit complex inches from existing houses at Clifton Beach; they've rezoned more rainforest at paradise palms golf course to housing; and Cairns 1st Councillors have not honoured their pre-election promise to start over with the beaches town centre plan, that was driven and invented by a property developer instead of the community. Amazing.

Never mind, onto the real business of this new Council.. designing the new logo! We now have a multitude of designs for the new Council to choose from.

Back in early March, I proposed new logos, depending on who was elected...


Following a can-you-believe-it-design-a-council-logo-workshop three weeks ago, at which my little birdie tells me they talked and talked and talked about "desired messages" and "values". Now, where's my Sno bucket when you need it?

Here's some of those that were at the logofest: Bill Calderwood, Advance Cairns; Craig Mawhinney and Scott Brown from All Copy; Eve Stafford, Arts Nexus; Gaye Scott, 20/20 Group; Gayle Thomas, Australian Tourism Network; Janet Smith, Lotsa Print; Jeff Mizen, Prime Radio; Margaret Oxley from the Cairns Show; Martyn Foote from Foote Print; Amanda Dean from Qahc; Rae O'Connell, KickArts; Rob Giason CEO of TTNQ; Advance Cairns Chairman Russell Beer who is also from Macdonnells lawyers; Sarah Fraser of Success Through Sales; local designer Suzanne Ashmore; and Vanessa Allen from Win TV.

Also Council staff Kelly Coppin, Belinda Griffin, Judy Mason, Leslie Sparkes, Kerrie Still, Kerie Hull, Deborah Wellington, Simone Roseler, and Works Manager Geoff Hatwell took part in the logo design workshop.

"We need green!" shouted one tree-hugger.

The designs include Licuala, the Birdwing butterfly, and the Cairns Golden Penda, among others. And yeah, they'll all green.

Personally I have to say, after 22 years in the marketing game, I find these all rather bland and dull. They lack a real dynamic representation of a city that is growing and is an international tourist spot. Almost all are the same colour, and there's hardly a dynamic representation amongst the lot. That's my two cents worth.

Meredith Wilsch, who has the auspicious title of Community Engagement Coordinator, is collating responses. So if you want to share your thoughts, drop her an email by this coming Wednesday.

If Meredith is the "community engagement" officer, maybe she should educate northern beaches Councillors on how to talk and communicate with their residents, prior to meetings. Margaret and Sno, it's about time you started to engage your community. Surely you two should know better, as you've had your snouts in the trough for a long while now.

You can see all the oddball designs nominated so far, on this PDF file.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of Auckland City Council's new logo. Fed up with the City of Sails logo, they spent $1m coming up with a new logo only to have Triangle TV say it was very similar to their logo. The upshot of it all was ACC agreed to the Triangle conditions of use and paid their $1o.5k legal bill. What a waste of money which would have been better spent fixing potholes.

Anonymous said...

where's one with some animals of wildlife in it????