Graphic designer Tanya Duffy describes the Town of Tantramar’s new logo as “a simple, clean and modern crest.”
During her presentation to town council on Tuesday, Duffy added that the logo is made up of several parts that come together to form a unified symbol.
“Each element showcases the natural beauty, history and complexity of the region,” she said before showing the new logo itself along with a slide explaining its various elements.
Duffy is the creative director of the Fredericton firm, The Details Design + Branding, that won the $60,000 contract to create the new logo while Tom Bateman of the Fredericton consulting firm, Porter O’Brien, helped with community engagement work that included conducting a survey, focus groups and interviews.
Tanya Duffy & Tom Bateman
Duffy and Bateman’s presentation pointed to the logo’s usefulness in all parts of the new town.
“The new brand does not seek to replace the identities of the communities that combine to make Tantramar, but rather to leverage the natural surroundings, identified by the residents, that make Tantramar a wonderful place to live, work and visit,” Duffy told council.
Judging by the reactions of those who spoke, the new logo was a big hit with members of council.
“I love it,” said Councillor Allison Butcher.
“Whether you live in Rockport or Dorchester or Point de Bute or Midgic or Sackville, I think that that logo is where you live,” she added.
“I sort of thought it would be divided up by areas, but I love how cohesive it is, but it’s still each of us altogether.”
Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell and Deputy Mayor Greg Martin praised the logo for including all parts of the municipality while Councillor Josh Goguen said he was glad to see recognition of the Acadians and the Fort Folly First Nation.
Councillor Bruce Phinney spoke three separate times telling Duffy and Bateman how impressed he was with how the logo brings everyone together.
“The last logo didn’t,” he said.
“All I ever saw was ducks and reeds. Sorry, I’m tired of ducks and reeds…[but] now people are going to say, ‘I know exactly who’s part of Tantramar’ because of the fact that you’ve incorporated everybody in it.”
“The logo is fantastic,” said Mayor Andrew Black.
“I love how each piece of the logo is separated, one from the other, but if you look at the lines and how it all comes together, it looks separated, but together,” Black explained, adding that a slide showing the logo on a town truck “looked awesome.”
However, Virgil Hammock, retired head of the Mount Allison University Fine Arts department, describes the new logo as pretty, but “too complex.”
Hammock, who is a former Sackville town councillor, says the various parts of the logo need to be explained before they can be understood.
“You want a universal symbol,” he said pointing, for example, to the Apple logo.
Hammock said he agreed with the conclusions of a $15,000 marketing study that the Town of Sackville received in 2020.
“If it appeals to everybody, it appeals to nobody.”
Thaddeus Holownia, an award-winning, local photographer and Mt. A research professor says he likes the colours in the logo.
“They remind me of an aerial photo of the Tantramar,” he says.
“It looks professional,” he adds. “It’s easy to be an armchair critic, but I think there are more pressing issues to discuss.”
Robert Tombs, a graphic artist and Mt. A. fine arts graduate who now serves as President of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, said in a brief response to a Facebook query:
“I think it’s a decent logo and it’s nice that Sackville got a good design.”
I like the logo, the symbols have relevance for our community. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” is a phrase that fits here.
Tantranar died in the crib so its papable I guess. Should just put up a b’g golden “T” Great if you’re in a ‘ group think” mood trying to solder together humpty dumpy and use some snake oil to promote it to the taxpayers. It’s corporate alright. Remember the beer New Brunswick commissioned to represent the province and all the hoopla from the government of the day? How long did that last? Citizen Hammock nailed it. Definitely not art. I was taught by a local artist that a logo has to be instantly recognizable. On a sign, on a hat, on the side of a building, even on the truck. Using a code of conduct to weld together a community that expects Transparency, the sign should have been a “mud pie”. Is there going to be a pull over and a magnifying glass to figure out what is all means?
At the risk of sounding like a contrarian, I find it disappointing to see that all of our town councillors were so overjoyed with the results of a ‘branding’ exercise that cost the residents of Tantramar $60,000 for a new logo. I expected some of our councillors to object to this waste of taxpayers’ money (whether municipal or provincial). Why does a municipality need a ‘brand’ in the first place? This appears to be another step in the ongoing corporatization of our society.
If our elected officials were so keen to have a logo designed for the new municipality of Tantramar, it would have made much more sense to make use of the large number of artists within our community. Town staff could have arranged for a competition amongst our local artists to design a logo, with the winning artist receiving a modest cash prize and public recognition for their work. Instead our town council has once again lavishly spent our tax dollars to hire outside consulting firms. Are our elected officials ever going to get their priorities straight? Sadly, it would appear not to be the case.
Completely agree. Town Council has bombed again. “Shop local” ….unless it involves tens of thousands of tax payer dollars in which case let’s forget about our local resources. I guess the new logo does one thing – its muted colours and unremarkable design lacks energy, so it pretty much represents the council that we continue to elect for some reason. (We really need to rethink the “leader” who is elected as Mayor next time….this lack of vision is becoming laughable.)
It fails on all accounts and continues the tradition of bad design.
Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you’ve never noticed :
This graphic design likens to the work that is generated by AI (Artificial Intelligence) computerized programs which can had for mere dollars. Again the lack of education and irresponsible spending habits of Town Council are hindering the economic growth of our town. “A fool and their money are soon parted.”
The reed grass symbol looks nothing like reed grass.
The “tidal areas and water” is blue when the Cumberland Basin and Tantramar River are actually red/brown.
The symbol for dykes doesn’t resemble a dyke in any way.
“Clear blue skies” are hardly a defining feature of the region. Fog and cloud would be more reflective of Tantramar.
But “Sunrises and sunsets”? Laughable. Every place on the planet has sunrises and sunsets. It’s the most generic feature on planet Earth. The designers could just as well have chosen an empty square and called it “Air”. In fact, air would be a lot more representative of Tantramar than sunrises and sunsets, since Tantramar is known for being very windy.
The only way in which this logo represents Tantramar is that it’s an expensive poorly thought out boondoggle that the residents of the area didn’t ask for, just like amalgamation.
Sadly Jon, I as well as many others, are saying exactly the same thing. You forgot the First Nations ‘request’ that the 8 pronged star be included. To me it looks a lot like a Ninja throwing star. Nothing like a logo being included in another logo, especially one where the Town of Tantramar does not govern over Fort Folly.
Cute little thingy on the bottom though. Surprisingly it looks like what Atlantic Industries are using on the sides of their new office section of their pipe plant on Walker Road.
I had thought that Tantramar Council would be presented with maybe 5 ‘simple’ options to possibly pick from and not gush head over heels to accept whatever was thrown at them.
Will this become an easily recognizable Logo for others to understand what we are all about? I really, really doubt it and I do think we should start from scratch with this very important identification step.
My very first thought was that clear blue skies are not at all typical of Sackville/Tantramar. It would have been so much more appropriate to have a few fluffy white clouds, or even, as you say, fog. According to weatherspark, this region doesn’t ever get to 50% of time spent in even the “mostly clear” category in the monthly averages, and much less in the “clear” category.
What this Fredericton consulting firm has tossed at us certainly appears to me like another loss to our TRUE historical identity here in Tantramar.
I’m wondering if the Provincial Parliament honchos around the corner from their office had anything to do with picking these six items which visually to me seem quite unrelated to our area. I believe Town Council has to rethink this imposed logo before it is written in ‘sandstone’.
This is an extremely expensive and complex logo to reproduce on signs in print etc due to the multiple images and colors. Complex logos are known not to be well recognized by viewers and very confusing. This will cost taxpayers even more $ than the 60K to design it. I guess they did succeed in making the image of a “complex” Tantramar region even more confusing and disconnected.
Cattle are branded… sheep are fleeced. Ka-ching! Big spenders .. sheesh.
A logo, to be successful, needs to be simple, easily reproduced, and immediately recognizable by all – including local residents and those from elsewhere.
This logo is anything but simple!
This logo will not be easily reproduced, with so many colours and individual elements. A child should be able to draw such a logo from memory, but that won’t happen with this one.
This logo requires extensive explanations to identify what each element represents.
Will the Town be including these explanations with each individual use of the logo?
The only ‘easily recognizable’ element in this logo is the 8-pointed star representing Fort Folly – which is not even governed by the new Town of Tantramar. While the First Nations are indeed an integral part of our founding history, should there not also be some easily recognizable indication of the other main ‘founding nations’ – such as a Rose for Britain, Fleur de lys for France, Thistle for Scotland, Shamrock for Ireland ?
Finally, the intent of this logo was purported to signify the uniting of numerous different areas into one entity. However, with all the various vague elements being sharply divided with those white border lines, the immediate feeling it imparts to the viewer is one of division, of separation. Each element is isolated in its own little corner, with no sense of togetherness.
Town Council blindly accepted this ‘finished product’ with no hesitation and no questions asked. Granted, they were not given any other options to consider, but I for one found it rather alarming to see how quickly they all jumped on the ‘praise bandwagon’.
Was this questionable result a good return on the investment of taxpayer dollars? I think not.
And even if part of the expense does end up being covered by Provincial coffers, where do you think that money comes from? That’s right — taxpayers.