The city government logo on a Nissan Frontier pickup.
If you’re worried about what the Albany city government is spending on replacing logos on its vehicles, don’t be. The new decals look good, and the cost, it isn’t much.
“I noticed today that all city vehicles have a new logo on them,” Rich Silver emailed me on Wednesday. “I’m wondering what prompted the change, reason for it and cost.”
I reported on the reasons for the new logo and the city council’s acceptance of it in March. The design was the work of Matt Harrington, who works for the city in information technology and has a background in design and fine arts. The impetus for the change was to update a design that was more than 20 years old and, because of its fine lines, was hard to scale down.
I asked about the cost of replacing the logo on the side of city vehicles.
The city paid $2,500 for 500 vehicle decals, a supply that Harrington figures should last several years. As he told the council in March, the original plan was to apply them to new vehicles and gradually replace them on others.
About 20 vehicles based at or near City Hall are used by engineers, building inspectors and the utility billing staff. “Since they are driven almost every day during the week, we chose to apply the logo to all of them,” Harrington wrote. “I did the install myself since I have some experience applying vinyl.”
He figures that the decals on the 20 vehicles, including his time, cost the city $16 per rig or $320.
Other vehicles, in the operations division of Public Works, have had the new decals applied by someone in that department. I didn’t ask them for an accounting, but I’m reasonably sure the cost there has been no more outrageous than at City Hall. (hh)
“Facts are irrelevant. What matters is what the consumer believes.” Seth Godin