The city of Savannah’s logo, which adorns government documents, uniforms, business cards and vehicles, is getting a makeover.

On Thursday, the Savannah City Council voiced support for one of four revised designs that staff presented during a morning workshop.

The preferred version rotates the current diamond symbol in an attempt to make it more clearly represent the downtown area’s squares and ward plan, and moves the symbol from the front of the word "Savannah" to the end. The words "City of" have been removed and the logo’s font was changed to match the font used by Visit Savannah and the Savannah Economic Development Authority.

City Manager Rob Hernandez had expressed his desire to develop a new logo when he was hired late last year. The city did not have the funds to move forward with a full blown rebranding, however, Hernandez said.

"It’s a refresh," he said. "It’s an update of what we have."

The update was done by staff and costs so far have amounted to less than $1,000, according to city officials. The new logo will also be phased in as new materials and vehicles are ordered, said Bret Bell, deputy assistant to the city manager.

"As we get new cars we’ll put on the new logo, but we won’t bring in existing cars and replace them," Bell said.

The existing logo was implemented about 11 years ago. Previously, city departments had their own individual logos, which had been confusing to residents, Bell said.

The planned revision got some online pushback from some residents who said they preferred the current design after images of altered logos were posted on Facebook Thursday.

Joy Kerkhoff, a former city employee who worked in the purchasing department during the last rebranding, said on Friday she did not see the need to spend any funding on a new logo when the budget is tight and the revised image is so similar to the current one. The rebranding process was implemented gradually last time as well, but still challenging to complete, Kerkhoff said.

"There’s probably old stuff out there still being used," she said.

In addition to aesthetic critiques, other online commenters questioned whether the city should be contemplating the logo revision when there are more important issues to address.

Hernandez dismissed those concerns.

"Just because we are focusing on a logo does not mean that we’re not focusing on public safety or anything else," he said.

The decision to move forward with the logo revision came on the same day the city council approved what Hernandez said was his top priority upon being hired — a strategic plan that establishes goals to guide the use of city resources and funding. The priorities in the plan are public safety, infrastructure, neighborhood revitalization, economic strength/poverty reduction and good government.