By Jason Massad
jasonmassad@reporternewspapers.net
Dunwoody’s new tag line “Smart People – Smart Place” has had the curtain pulled on it almost as quickly as it was unveiled.
Turns out the economic development arm of Plano, Tex., uses the same catchphrase and alerted Dunwoody officials days after the city unveiled its new logo Oct. 23 at the Dunwoody Music Festival.
So, Dunwoody is keeping the “Smart people” but it’s no longer a “Smart place.” It will be a “Smart city.”
“The right thing was to change the logo so that it wasn’t identical,” Dunwoody City Manager Warren Hutmacher said Thursday.
The logo says “Dunwoody” in blue accented by a lime-green asterisk. Beneath “Dunwoody” appear the words “Smart people – Smart City.”
The city, along with its Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce pitched in a combined $105,000 to hire a marketing firm to create three logos to give a unified look and feel to the logos for the three entities.
Dunwoody bloggers published criticisms of the original logo design. Bloggers and others who posted on their websites felt the logo was simultaneously corporate, staid and generic — as well as professional and clean.
Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog – created and updated by Dunwoody City Councilman John Heneghan – drew dozens of comments on the logo.
Posters quickly picked up on the fact that the logo is reminiscent of Walmart’s logo, which has a yellow star in the right corner and a tagline that says “Save money. Live better.”
“Have we been pranked? Did we really just spend money just to adopt a Walmart logo as our brand?” commented one poster on the blog, identified by the handle “famousdunwoody.”
Plano is the headquarters of some of the country’s largest and most recognized companies. Dunwoody city representatives stand behind the concept of the logo, even with the change.
“We have read some of the comments,” said Edie Damann, spokeswoman for the city. “Our decision was to develop a logo that was more corporate looking that would be attractive to bringing businesses and economic development to Dunwoody.”
