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37 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for reaching out Al.

    Your opinions about Sault Ste. Marie are ALWAYS welcome and appreciated by virtue of your birth here, and also by the fact that you clearly love our city.

    On this new City Logo, however, your well written, individual opinion misses the point entirely.

    The point being: Who is the client here?

    Is Al Scornaienchi the client?

    No. He’s one of the graphic experts.

    Are the 750 Sault residents whose input was apparently sought the client?

    No. They were the hand-picked focus groups who largely represented the interests of the highest priority target group – the youth – who, let’s face it, we’ve all been saying we want to entice to stay in, or come back to, or simply come to reside in the Sault since, I don’t know, 1973? But, they are NOT the client they’re the TARGET, and maybe not even that, but definitely NOT the client.

    Is the Mayor the client?

    No. Our Mayor thinks he’s the client, but, on this new Logo issue that NOBODY in Sault Ste. Marie asked for, our Mayor is simply the REPRESENTATIVE of the client.

    Who, then, is the client on this new Logo issue?

    The client is all of us citizens of Sault Ste. Marie who reside here right now.

    The client is we, the people of Sault Ste. Marie, who will have to toss away our city’s 25 year investment in our current Naturally Gifted Brand and Logo, and who will HAVE TO pay for, and promote whatever new Logo we, the client, were NEVER EVEN ONCE CONSULTED ON during the entire 2 year Logo, Brand, and Marketing Material process.

    Except, of course, in the last five days before our so-called representatives rammed it down our throats in the face of overwhelming and undeniable wide-scale REJECTION of we, the client.

    This would NEVER happen at your firm, Al. The client would be consulted by their representatives, and received a stamp of approval at least at EVERY MILESTONE along the Logo, Brand, and Marketing way.

    It’s OUR LOGO.

    We are THE CLIENT.

    Yet we were NEVER consulted.

    You see, Al, a bridge is supported by at least two things: 1) Where it’s coming from, and 2) where it’s going to. And, yes, the MAYOR’S NEW LOGO is attempting to build a bridge to what we all hope will be our city’s new, more youthful future, but that bridge does NOT have the support of where it is coming from, and no Professional Engineer would ever build a bridge that doesn’t have BOTH those two basic supports.

    And, yes Al, our Mayor may see himself as the Doctor who is attempting to cure our city of the cancer of youth outmigration, and turn our city’s health around by forcing us to take this Chemo-Logo, but we are THE PATIENT, and we get to decide if we want to take the Doctor’s advice, or if we want to pursue another, maybe less effective, therapy that WE FEEL is more in keeping with OUR HEALTH OBJECTIVES.

    Plus, we’re talking about a Logo Al.

    It’s not bridge building, and it’s definitely not life and death.

    It’s OUR Logo.

    And equally Al, a RANDOM ONLINE SELF-SELECTED UNSCIENTIFIC SAMPLING of 4,000 of us, the client, returned a result of 87% on this new Logo issue saying, “I hate it”, “I don’t want it”, “I don’t understand it”, “It doesn’t represent me”, “It doesn’t represent us”, “It wastes our investment in the perfectly good, understandable, future-usable, and much more representative Naturally Gifted Logo that maybe needs a little freshening up”…

    Even with a 35% margin of error that’s a DINO-SIZED REJECTION of this new Logo.

    Yet it gets rammed down our throats even harder with General Provenzano calling in the cavalry to speak lovingly and glowingly about HIS point of view at the City Council meeting five days after the unveiling of this grotesque glob (with its own font) after spending two years (less five days) spending time picking people who will fall in line with HIS point of view, and pursue his point of view as it relates to this new City Logo THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR.

    Most times we all love the fact that Mayor Provenzano leads by taking charge while dragging the rest of City Council over the finish line.

    But in some cases, Al, like this new Logo issue, which isn’t actual bridge building, or life or death, we’d much rather have our elected representatives listen to us because it affects all of us, and on this thing that is metaphorically doctoring and bridge building WE’RE THE CLIENT, we’re the patient, and all of our collective input on this Logo issue represent what we collectively think because we’d much rather take our untrained , “we know who we are and how we’d like to be portrayed to others”, point of view that makes us feel like we belong in our own city, and that our views are welcomed in our own city, and that the maximum number of us can be proud putting out to the rest of the world saying…

    “This Logo, my friend, represents me and our Sault Ste. Marie”.

    It’s not rocket science. All it takes is the perfectly reasonable recognition by our politicians that on this Logo issue wide-scale community consultation is the only reasonable way to go.

    Thanks again for your input, Al, and we hope that you will come back to our wonderful, “vibrant and contemporary”, naturally gifted city some day.

    The sooner the better, and bring your firm and all of your employees, youthful or otherwise. We’re an hour away from downtown Toronto, and connected to the world!!

    Plus, this is your home Al.

    Hurry home.

    Sincerely,
    Mark Brown

  2. The town is so-o-o 1973 and has done nothing to modernize and will forever be held back hoping for better days. Better, more modern days are achieved by forward-thinking business and organizations and institutions. None of that exists in the Sault for one simple reason: there is no market for it. All the gov’t money dumped into this hamlet will never change a thing. The place has been left behind, plain and simple. Young people do not want to be there…pack it in, and move along. And quit wasting hard-earned private sector-employed tax dollars on this place.

  4. LOL and he doesn’t live in today’s Sault… This logo does NOT represent anything of what the Sault is today! We are, after all, a steel town. Nothing in that logo shows this. I’ve travelled from the east coast to the west, from Canada to USA (car) never once have I seen a more confusing brand to represent a city in my life. When I drive by i.e. Georgia, usa I see a huge peach to brand their state, I know they grow peaches. This is pretty typical of any and all cities. I do not like this brand and stand with the 88% rest of the people who don’t. Good letter, to bad it came from someone who doesn’t live here today!

  5. UGLY is as UGLY Does! …. The Adiddas, Nike, Amazon, & many other Logos … Can be Liked “At First Glance”!….. I do like the Ditigalized Version of the “Old” City Logo the student did!!!!

  6. Sorry Al, but this logo is terrible. What do all these shapes mean? No one is really sure. There may be an explanation of them but everyone can take a different meaning from them as they don’t “look” like anything. They don’t look like water, they don’t look like trees, they don’t look like….well you get it.

    Abstract art is the worst way to create a logo. Go to an art museum with an abstract art display and if you ask 1000 people what one picture what they ‘see’ from it you’ll likely get 1000 different interpretations. That is precisely why using this type of logo for a comunity is a mistake. A simple image like Nike or Addidas works because they don’t have 20 different shapes or different sizes and different colours.

    The different colours are supposed to represent the native spirit wheel but they aren’t the right colours. The is supposed to be something in the design representing the International Bridge but I can figure if it is showing the bridge from the side or from the view from the front windshield of a car crossing the bridge.

    You see. Lots of questions surrounding this logo that aren’t answered or have multiple answers.

    Also, when presenting the logo the company said don’t change it or don’t change the colours. Yet, we see that on buses the logo will be broken apart to Crete a design (I understand the idea behind that but it still ‘changes’ the logo) and I’ve seen t-shirts with the logo on a black background with none of the colours included (yet another ‘change’). So what is it? Don’t touch the logo design or do whatever you want with it?

    As for change. Brands such as Coca Cola and many other companies never change their logo. Some have tried changing their logo and even base product (Coca Cola with “New Coke”) and in most cases it was a mistake. Companies who do change their logo are usually failing to some extent and believe a ‘new look’ will revive sales. Sault Ste. Marie isn’t a company and changing the logo was an exercise in futility as our ‘sales’ aren’t going to go up due to a logo change.

    I wonder if any serious though was given to an update on the current logo. Likely not or they convinced the committee that it couldn’t be done. If anything, our motto could have been changed or enhanced with what they choose to go with the new design.

    On another note. This new logo looks like so many of the logos created for Olympic Games – most of which make no sense.

    This logo is uninspiring and in my opinion tells me nothing and symbolizes nothing about Sault Ste. Marie. Sorry I couldn’t make the dot blue in ‘Ste’ as of course that would have made my point much more clear.

  9. I cannot see ANY LOGO encouraging a new business to start up…or to be the cause of folks moving to the city. Those considering a move to our city are looking at shopping possibilities….educational facilities….air travel…health care….the arts…housing costs etc. It would never cross their minds to look for the city logo and use that as a determining factor on choosing a city . Lets spend monet where it will give us the biggest bang for the buck. The EDC needs to attract business and everything else will fall into place.

  13. The guy working for a design firms says it’s time to re-design. His evidence is a bunch of irrelevant information about other logos that nobody knows or cares about? lol. The sault is a town, not a brand. We don’t need brand recognition…..nobody cares what the logo means and will never know or ask, we have nothing unique to offer anyone. Until THAT changes………a new logo isn’t going to help.

  17. let the people of soo ste marie decide on what logo they want its there city not for a few elected
    people that are paid by the taxpayers

  18. So much wrong with this argument wise. Comparing art to doctors and engineers is silly. Will student’s drawing a logo mean the difference between my heart beating or not beating. Will choosing a student artist be the difference between a bridge falling when I drive over it. No. Will I get my 13 year old neighbour to cut my grass for 10 bucks over hiring Dan’s Yard Care? Yes.

    Also nobody cares about hidden meanings. Nobody cares that Adidas has mountains because its an aesthetically pleasing logo. We like it without knowing. This new city logo is vibrant and sinfully contemporary but it’s still ugly. It actually looks like every logo in a logo making website. You are right about one thing though, they should get it right.

  19. I do not look at other cities logos and say ” wow that really makes me want to stay” A logo is only a symbol like our city flag.

  20. The author makes some good points but the bottom line is the new logo is ugly. Period. There are objective standards of beauty and this does not meet them.

  22. Thank you for your opinion, to which you are entitled. Your letter was well written and contained many valid points. I too am not in the target audience. But I have lived here all my life, as have my parents, siblings, aunts uncles, etc. I love Sault Ste. Marie and shall stay here, hopefully, until I die.
    I’m not against change, not at all. But I expect more public consultation before something is rammed down my throat. This logo, in my opinion, does not reflect us in the way that it should.

  23. The only valid point he makes is that the Soo can’t be living in the 70s. Anything else doesn’t justify this garbage logo we are supposed to accept without any public input. He is quite condescending in challenging our intellect on such things as knowing what the Adidas logo represents, … without Googling, I am quite sure I know as much if not more than he does about the origins and history of Adidas. This logo is supposed to represent us, … Sault Ste. Marie and its people. It’s not about throwing some piece of crap at a wall and hoping it will stick. To say he doesn’t have a vested interest in we accepting this logo matches he condescension of Adidas.

  24. Although I don’t get the new logo that isn’t the reason I am extremely upset about the new logo. I am angry that a logo designed to attract business to the Soo was out sourced to an agency outside out community; why wasn’t the logo developed by a local business;2. Before the logo was accepted by city council ,merchandise was already made and distributed…why vote on it if it’s a done deal?;3. Lack of community input into if this is the logo we want to represent us. I do understand there was some input but I feel it was very narrow.

  25. Explain why all the points are different. Each piece has a different radius. Is this symbolic of something or did the designer just not know how to properly use the program to design it.

  27. You evidently left this city because it could not compete with the opportunities elsewhere.

    Having family and visiting a few times a year hardly makes you a saultite.

    Perhaps if you’re so emboldened by the logo, put your money where your mouth is and pay for it yourself.

  32. 7 out of 10 people think that the new logo is garbage, I agree.
    The city didn’t even try to get someone local to create the new logo which they have already proven they are more than capable of, it’s not rocket science. This reflects poorly on SSM mayor and city council spending a pile of taxpayer money out of town, for a substandard product, but this is nothing new and that is why we need a new mayor and several of city council replaced by more intelligent people than they have there now. Otherwise the city is going nowhere fast and will be decreasing in size instead of growing.

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