City of Austin's $1.1M brand initiative aims to enhance unity, engagement

AUSTIN, Texas - The City of Austin has unveiled a new brand initiative aimed at enhancing unity and community engagement.

What they're saying:

Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax and others held a news conference at Austin City Hall to discuss the initiative.

Broadnax says that for the first time in the city's history, there will be a logo representing the city's services and unifying them as "one organization, one Austin."

"While this effort began before I arrived as city manager, it is a project I was glad to champion because there is a very real business need for a unified brand. We want our community members to be able to identify members of our team as City of Austin employees and trust the services we provide," Broadnax said.

Broadnax says that currently the city has over 300 logos representing various departments, services and programs, and that community feedback sessions revealed a large majority of Austinites don't have "recognition of or a strong affinity for the city seal."

The new brand has been shaped by feedback from community members and employees through surveys and focus groups.

This launch has been in the works since 2018, according to the city's communications director Jessica King, when the City Council approved and established a clear City of Austin brand as part of a plan to improve communication and engagement with communities, businesses and employees.

"A unified brand makes city services easier to recognize, navigate, and trust. It ensures that we place our focus on continually delivering the best possible services to Austinites instead of spreading ourselves then across a variety of different brands, brands that are all over the city," said King.

Dig deeper:

King explained the new logo as well.

"The logo itself reflects the hills, rivers, and bridges that serve to connect us to one another. The colors were inspired by our surrounding environment – violet crown skies and the green canopies of our parks and trails. We deliberately chose a mark that reminded us of movement to reflect how welcoming, flexible and resilient this community and our employees are," King said.

The city contracted with two companies to help develop the new brand: TKO, an Austin-based agency specializing in brand storytelling, and Pentagram, an internationally renowned design firm with an Austin-based office and team, including partner DJ Stout who led the visual brand design for the City of Austin.

The new initiative cost the city about $1.1 million, with the funding coming from the fiscal year 2024 and 2025 budgets' general fund.

What's next:

The city says that the change will be rolled out gradually over the coming years to "minimize impact on the city budget."

The new brand will officially launch on Oct. 1 with a new look for digital assets such as the City’s website, department web pages, social media profiles and newsletters.

Meanwhile, items such as uniforms, facility signage and vehicles will transition based on department schedules to update or replace such items at the end of their service life.

The city says that the uniforms of the Austin police, fire and EMS departments will not change.

Austin residents react

"I think it's different. I think Austin's a little bit crazier to having a more simplistic logo like that. The price tag is insane though," Emryle Martinez said. 

"It's just a logo," Jorge Campuzano said. "It's too much money to spend on something like that. It should be spent on something else more needed for, you know."

FOX 7 asked the city about their response to Austinites who are concerned about the cost.

"I would tell them this actually creates a lot of efficiencies within the organization," King said. She references all the different logos across departments.

"When you create brand-new things over and over, the costs increase."

"I like it. I've been running a lot near to the river, so I feel when I run here, I feel the passion and the confidence of all runners, and I feel like I like the logo because it seems to be like the vibes, the good vibe of this Austin," Fabian Castro said. 

As for the cost, he says, "it's worth it."