EVERETT — Voting for Everett’s design contest for a new logo has begun, albeit a couple days late.
“It was really just the volume of it,” said city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke.
More than 800 designs were submitted, and there was a run of last-minute entries before the Oct. 24 deadline which made it difficult to get everything up and running on time, she said.
The winning designer will be awarded $5,000.
Boeing jets are a common motif in the 800-plus logo entries, as are Puget Sound, the Cascades, and Xfinity Arena with its telltale roof supports. There are representations of an aircraft carrier, a container ship, anchors, military insignias, whales, music and paper airplanes. Downtown Everett’s notorious gulls also make an appearance.
Some logos hew closely to the city’s current emblem, while others completely reimagine the city’s logo design using historical or modern styles. Blues and greens predominate, but the color spectrum is represented from sunset red to autumn-sky gray.
Some include new slogans for the city: “Rolling out the future,” “Past, present, future,” “The EVT,” “Great Thinking. With a View.”
Professional designs sit side-by-side with hand-drawn sketches. Some are busy, detailed renderings while others are composed solely of typography. Some appear to have been drawn by schoolchildren.
“It was neat to see people turn in so many ideas,” Pembroke said.
The city’s current logo is 20 years old. The city decided to hold a contest for a new one to increase public involvement in the process.
To keep costs down, the city will replace the logo gradually, starting with its website and stationery, where it’s cheap or free to do so, and only replacing it on more expensive items like signs or vehicles as they are upgraded.
The top 15 vote-getters, plus five more selected by the city’s Cultural Arts Commission, will be forwarded to a judging panel to select a winner. The City Council will vote to approve the winner in November.
A link to the voting page is at everettwa.org/logo. People can vote for up to five designs. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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