As Visalia rethinks its unpopular new logo, you can help by voting for a local favorite
Hey there reader!
Wanna help the Visalia City Council identify what a good logo looks like? Vote on your favorite from a collection we gathered from some of the region’s local Central Valley governments.
Pictured below are 10 logos from Merced to Kings that might be helpful for a council that has gotten lots of negative feedback on its ultra-modern new logo, so much so that it moved its June 3 evening meeting to the Visalia Convention Center so it could accommodate an expected crowd.
The city paid an Irvine company $150,000 for a rebranding campaign that includes a marketing campaign, recruitment strategy, as well as design of a new logo.
The logo was unveiled on May 7. Since then, more than 3,000 people signed an online petition to persuade the council to change the design. Some have likened it to an image from Star Trek, and the logo also does not include Visalia’s name, or any words, some have pointed out critically.
Two years ago, Farmersville, in the foothills of Tulare County, updated its logo with nary a complaint.
Here are 10 logos in use in the region. Vote on your favorite?
▪ City of Sanger: The Sanger logo features the General Grant Tree, also known as the nation’s Christmas tree, as the prominent image. Sanger was designated as the “Nation’s Christmas Tree City” in 1949 by the U.S. Postal Service.
▪ City of Tulare: The oval logo of the city that was incorporated in 1888 features a scenery of a creek, tree, rolling hills, horse-drawn plow, and a house.
▪ City of Lemoore: The simple design is dominated by a rising – or setting – sun above a rolling field and a spacious background. Lemoore, home of a U.S. Naval Air Station, was incorporated in 1900.
▪ City of Hanford: Earlier this year the city introduced a new supplementary logo and tagline to assist staff with various marketing efforts, from retail recruitment to tourism and events. The new logo does not replace the “Planning Tomorrows” blue and yellow city’s seal.
▪ City of Farmersville: In 2022, the city decided it needed to update a logo that could have been mistaken for a label on a box of grapes. The result is a simple oval featuring a windmill amid rolling fields in front of Sierra foothills and a skyline. A local artist handled the design.
▪ City of Selma: The so-called Raisin Capital of the World keeps it simple: A globe of the world with a bunch of Thompson grapes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The city was incorporated in 1893.
▪ City of Madera: There is more text in this city’s logo than graphic elements. The city’s name straddles the middle of bars that form the image of the state. Madera is known as the city in the middle of the state.
▪ City of Merced: Like Visalia, Merced also likes to feature the iconic Fox Theatre in its logo. However, in this design, the theater tower dominates the graphic. The city was incorporated in 1889.
▪ City of Fresno: The city logo features grapes hanging from a vine – a future update might have to focus on other crops that might have felt left out. One might have expected a more spectacular logo from the Valley’s biggest city.
▪ City of Fowler: It’s fruity! Unlike Fresno, Fowler does not focus solely on grapes. Also represented is a peach, orange, pomegranate, among other fruits. The city was incorporated in 1908.
