Harbor Springs officials sort through city logo possibilities

HARBOR SPRINGS — Several months ago, the City of Harbor Springs opened a logo design contest to the public to see if citizens wanted to update its official logo.

“It’s been a while now, but in October we approved a contest to solicit designs for the potential new city logo,” city manager Victor Sinadinoski told the city council during its meeting on Monday. “The idea was to have the community lead the effort in helping us create a new image and what Harbor Springs means to them and how we wanted to represent the city to the outside world.”

Sinadinoski said the idea to update the logo was first initiated after hearing concerns that the teepee included in the current city logo does not accurately represent the region’s Native American culture.

The current circular logo has blue, red and white colors. It includes images of stars, a saw, trees, a teepee and a sailboat. The city’s settlement year, 1829, and the phrase “All America City 1976” are also included in the logo.

Around 15 new logo submissions were received. So far, the artists have been kept anonymous by the city.

The contest’s original timeline was then interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Now that we’ve kind of slowed down on the those urgent issues, we are back talking about things that are a little more fun,” Sinadinoski said.

Sinadinoski asked council whether the contest should be reopened to allow for more entries, or if members wanted to move ahead and seek public input on the submissions they already have.

Sinadinoski added that the council has many options available. They could ultimately choose a new logo, a combination of logos or opt to stay with the image they currently use. If a new design is selected, the logo would go to a professional designer to make it ready for city use.

Council member John Lio said he was pleased with the number of options available.

“It’s a lot more detailed and varied than the last time we looked at them,” he said. “There’s some interesting ideas and concepts.”

Mayor Matt Bugera suggested officials now seek public input on the designs, and Lio agreed.

“I really do appreciate all the input that we did get,” Sinadinoski said. “Fifteen responses by about 10 or so individuals, so I think it’s good.”

With council’s consensus, Sinadinoski said he will post public surveys to gather input and make the submissions available to view on the city’s website, www.cityofharborsprings.com.

Monday’s city council meeting can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvnphPynoCc