UPDATE: City Council approved Vancouver’s new logo on Wednesday afternoon. Only two council members, George Affleck and Melissa DeGenova, opposed the new design. The new design will be rolled out digitally and onto new documents. Changes to the city’s six ‘welcome’ signs will have to wait since this year’s budget cannot accommodate the $25,000 (each) cost.

The City of Vancouver may be getting a new look, at least when it comes to its official logo.

City staff have commissioned a redesign of the existing logo to give the city a new visual identity that’s in line with the times.

A report filed by City staff says the City’s visual identity had not been updated in more than a decade, and a simpler visual identity will not only be more easily recognized and understood by those for whom English is not a first language, but can be more easily adapted for social media channels.

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The report says the City identified the opportunity to refresh its visual identity in June 2016 in light of changing city demographics and evolving popular culture, including the increased reliance on social media for communication and keeping pace with change.

The new wordmark sticks to the same colour scheme, but looks a little more streamlined.

The current City of Vancouver logo (on the left) side by side with the proposed new wordmark (on the right). City of Vancouver

The report says the company selected to design the new logo was the lowest bidder and total costs came in at under $8,000. It came up with a simplified wordmark, which, the report says, presents an “updated image of the City of Vancouver as a modern, innovative and highly desirable place to live and work.”

City staff are recommending a phased rollout of the new wordmark to gradually update City assets and other materials over the course of the year.

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The City Council will be voting on the new logo on Wednesday.

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