Huron East Council votes on new logo, branding for municipality

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Huron East Council has chosen a new logo for the municipality that drops references to the five pre-amalgamation communities as part of an extensive rebranding process.

 

Council made the decision earlier this month at its Nov. 5 meeting. Representatives from Cinnamon Toast, the marketing agency contracted by the municipality for the job, detailed the process at the meeting and discussed the extensive public outreach, but ultimately left the final decision up to council.

 

The firm presented two new logo designs for council’s consideration. While three had been proposed originally, when they were thrown out to the public for input, two of the three received 97 per cent of the vote, so the firm dropped the one that wasn’t really speaking to residents ahead of their presentation to council. 

 

Residents were largely split, with one option garnering 50 per cent of the vote and the other receiving 47 per cent of the vote. Councillor Justin Morrison, speaking up for the democratic process, said that those who were surveyed had chosen Option C with 50 per cent of the vote, so he felt council should listen to the will of the people. 

 

And yet, several councillors voiced their personal preference as being Option A (Option B was the logo that received just three per cent of the vote and was dropped from contention by Cinnamon Toast ahead of the presentation).

 

However, before the official vote on a new logo, some, Mayor Bernie MacLellan and Deputy-Mayor Alvin McLellan among them, wondered about the need to even adopt a new logo in the first place, saying that they were happy with the original logo and didn’t feel that it needed to be refreshed.

 

The mayor, however, did say that what he liked about the new logo options were that they did away with the wards and that they really focused on Huron East as one, united municipality.

 

Furthermore, Clerk Jessica Rudy noted that council had already decided to embark on the rebranding process, so, in a way, that conversation had already taken place and had been settled by council.

 

Council then embarked on a pair of votes that were considered by Rudy to be unofficial, as not all members of council cast a vote. Neither of them “passed” and she was forced to tighten things up and take official votes that would stand up to public scrutiny.

 

The reason some councillors said they didn’t vote for either option were that they were not in favour of either and would prefer to keep the current logo in place. That’s when Rudy said that the decision to adopt a new logo had already been made and that all councillors must cast a vote, according to the municipality’s procedural bylaw.

 

In the first full vote, Morrison, McLellan and Councillor Jeff Newell voted in favour of Option C, which received the majority of the 118 survey responses, while the rest of council voted against it. In a second vote, six members - Mayor Bernie MacLellan and Councillors Bob Fisher, Ray Chartrand, Brenda Dalton, Larry McGrath and Gloria Wilbee - voted for Option A, while Morrison, McLellan, Newell and Dianne Diehl voted against it. Notably, Diehl voted against both options.

 

As for the rest of the rebranding, Cinnamon Toast representatives outlined a number of other aspects of the process. They said the municipality needs to be welcoming, authentic, confident and optimistic in nature, while also noting that agriculture, history and heritage and other aspects of life in Huron East should be highlighted, with over 77 per cent speaking on behalf of agriculture and just under 61 per cent saying heritage and history are important to Huron East.