By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The final item on the agenda at Tuesday night's Copperas Cove city council meeting has been several years in the making – that of a new logo for the City of Copperas Cove.
The council voted to approve a resolution authorizing the new logo, which according to Kevin Keller, the City's Public Relations Director, has only cost $70 thus far, and that was because he ordered a sample of a stitched design from a local vendor to see how the logo would look embroidered.
Prior to the council’s vote Tuesday, Keller shared the background of the process and how the city's rebranding will take place. A committee of city staff, prior councilmembers, and community members worked with CCISD educator and graphic designer, Joshua Moore, who volunteered his services.
“The proposed monogram style logo features two bold styled C letters representing Copperas Cove, incorporating the silhouette of the state of Texas with a star marking the city's location. The circular open design reflects connection unity and forward movement, while the clean, simplified form ensures clarity, versatility and consistent representation of the city across our various platforms,” Keller said.
As far as how much the rebranding will cost and when it will happen, Keller said that he did a basic cost analysis about 18 months ago.
“We asked all the departments, if we asked you right now to take the existing logo and get rid of it with this new logo and everything, what it would cost. I compiled all that data from all the departments and the all-in number was like $95,000,” he said.
“We have discussed internally a rollout process which is the digital footprint for our city, our social media platforms, our website, our financial software, our agenda software, internal and external documents. We'd be looking at two to three months to roll that out.
“Smaller signage, uniforms, name tags, business cards, most of that would be absorbed in the current budget. If I as an employee need to buy a name tag or business cards, I would just purchase that in the current budget, or I could plan for the next fiscal year.”
He also addressed other higher-ticket items.
“Larger items, such as big water towers, if we want to put a logo on there, those would be discussed and considered during next year's budget process, and then vehicles and equipment,” Keller added. “The goal is that we'd phase those out over the next two to three years. In other words, if we have a brand-new vehicle with the current logo on it, we leave that. We can phase it out to change those logos up.
“Attacking all areas now could be very costly if we just went all-in and threw all of our hats away and our coats away and our shirts away and our business cards. It could be very expensive, as we shared with you in past meetings, but the phasing in would largely be absorbed during the annual budget process.”
Next for the city is working toward the trademark.
“Trademarking is a federal legal process, and my research tells me this can take 12 to 18 months to get a trademark finalized, from beginning to end.” he said.
Keller also brought up an email by a concerned citizen that was sent to the council on the subject of the logo, not just the cost, but the need.
“There was a question that referenced justification of creating a new logo. Why do we need to do that? This has been discussed for several years by both yourselves and past elected officials and staff.” Keller said.
“Essentially, this became an opportunity to freshen up our city's image with a more modern monogram logo and help us to begin working towards an identity goal. And lastly, the cost was questioned. To date, I’ve spent $70 on this. The large majority of the cost has been staff time. I've literally spent $70 and that was to pay for a stitch design at a local business,” Keller said.
The largest cost will be painting the new water tower, at a cost of approximately $18,000-$20,000, and after that uniforms, name tags, and business cards. The water tower painting cost was already figured in at the time that project was undertaken.
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