La Crosse County’s lame logo

Branding can be important for a business. It can help them stand out from their competitors. But is it important for government as well? La Crosse County apparently thinks so, spending $60,000 on a new branding campaign that includes a new logo and tagline. But, boy, is it boring. Even a number of members on the county board voted against the new logo, calling it nondescript and unexciting. The new logo features a square with the letters “LC” next to another square which reads “1851” a reference to the year La Crosse County was founded. Beneath the logo is the tagline, “Exceptional services. Extraordinary places.” Huh? According to the dictionary, a logo is defined as a graphic representation or symbol of a company often uniquely designed for ready recognition. This $60,000 logo is hardly uniquely designed, or readily recognizable. Shouldn’t the words La Crosse County appear in the new logo somewhere? Perhaps a picture of the bridge or the bluff, or the river, something that screams La Crosse? As one board member points out, ‘If you showed this logo to a passerby, they would have no idea what it is to represent.’ That makes it a bad logo, and in the case of La Crosse County, a rather expensive one.