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Does Toronto needs a new logo? How to improve our image in the world?

Which logo would fit Toronto?

  • Matthew Daley

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Matt Webb

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Max Young

    Votes: 6 17.6%

  • Clarice Gomes

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Matthew Blackett

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Mark Ruivo

    Votes: 4 11.8%

  • Kait Bos

    Votes: 3 8.8%

  • Matthew Bambach

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Status Quo

    Votes: 12 35.3%
  • Total voters
    34
As much as I like seeing the Metro logo around the city for historical reasons, I'm surprised so many people want it back. Other than the number of links (representing municipalities that no longer exist), it's really generic. If you were to see it without the word "Toronto", you'd have no idea what it stood for.
 
Well, in the event that the Fords win again, it'll have to be either this

750px-Flag_of_Edward_England.svg.png


or this

screwball.jpg
 
Silence&Motion said:
As much as I like seeing the Metro logo around the city for historical reasons, I'm surprised so many people want it back. Other than the number of links (representing municipalities that no longer exist), it's really generic. If you were to see it without the word "Toronto", you'd have no idea what it stood for.
Click to expand...

Not every logo needs to be, or should be, illustrative. Montreal and various Japanese municipalities are examples of great municipal logos that are somewhat abstract, but people recognize them because they are applied regularly and consistently. Not every logo needs to hit you over the head with what they represent.

A logo that depicts new city hall is also fine, but the current one is executed very poorly.
 
If the goal of the logo is to grow a brand and draw tourism, then why would you want to use a bland complex such as the city hall as the centerpiece of the logo? Yes city hall is important for Toronto, but it's not exactly like the White House to international visitors. Tourists are drawn to the CN Tower, the islands, the tall buildings, Chinatown, etc. Fun things. The best logo in my opinion would be the skyline. It's globally recognizable as one of the best. The silhouette used on this site makes for a much better logo than city hall does. At least if your goal is to draw international visitors.

All that said, Toronto doesn't do bad for tourism, considering that in 2011 it drew $5 billion, vs $7 billion in LA.
 
middeljohn said:
If the goal of the logo is to grow a brand and draw tourism, then why would you want to use a bland complex such as the city hall as the centerpiece of the logo? Yes city hall is important for Toronto, but it's not exactly like the White House to international visitors. Tourists are drawn to the CN Tower, the islands, the tall buildings, Chinatown, etc. Fun things. The best logo in my opinion would be the skyline. It's globally recognizable as one of the best. The silhouette used on this site makes for a much better logo than city hall does. At least if your goal is to draw international visitors.

All that said, Toronto doesn't do bad for tourism, considering that in 2011 it drew $5 billion, vs $7 billion in LA.
Click to expand...
The Toronto skyline changes very quickly though.
 
middeljohn said:
If the goal of the logo is to grow a brand and draw tourism, then why would you want to use a bland complex such as the city hall as the centerpiece of the logo?
Click to expand...

If the goal is tourism, then there is little point to this discussion about the city's corporate logo. That would fall under the city's tourism board, which would have a logo of it's own. It's unlikely you'd see a cities government logo outside of said city.
 
middeljohn said:
If the goal of the logo is to grow a brand and draw tourism, then why would you want to use a bland complex such as the city hall as the centerpiece of the logo? Yes city hall is important for Toronto, but it's not exactly like the White House to international visitors. Tourists are drawn to the CN Tower, the islands, the tall buildings, Chinatown, etc. Fun things. The best logo in my opinion would be the skyline. It's globally recognizable as one of the best. The silhouette used on this site makes for a much better logo than city hall does. At least if your goal is to draw international visitors.
Click to expand...

The fact that you dismiss Viljo Revell's masterwork (and, lest we symbolically forget, a place that carries seat-of-government gravitas--remember: said logo is meant as *municipal* branding, not *tourist* branding) as a "bland complex" automatically disqualifies you from making such judgment.

Oh, and if it's about tourists, *this*--the ghost of the infamous Miller-era "Toronto Unlimited"--is what you should be addressing.

toronto_unlimited2.png
 
View attachment 23275View attachment 23273This was our beautiful logo. I hired with the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto 1972. I retired in 2009. This logo was on all our fleet, our uniforms, flags and carved into the stone of our building and bridges etc. It was every where. For my 25th anniversary in 1997 the Metro Chairman awarded me a gold watch with that logo: "The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto 1953" with the seal.
I wish I could find a better pic than this, but when they replaced it with the "daisy chain" as we called it ( the six circles ) they seem to have erased all trace of it.
This does not do it justice because it lacks the colour:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goaskaliceithinkshewillknow/2687350506/in/photostream/
They all said "1953" at the bottom. Not sure why this one does not.

The attached pic is the Coat of Arms. The circle is illustrated in the link.

The second pic is from the Archives of Metro Chairman Gardiner in front of the seal that my generation of Metro employees were familiar with. Take it over the daisy chain any day!

( I apologise for the two B and W photos. I tried to edit the bottom one out, but was unsure how to do it. )
 
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Silence&Motion said:
As much as I like seeing the Metro logo around the city for historical reasons, I'm surprised so many people want it back. Other than the number of links (representing municipalities that no longer exist), it's really generic.
Click to expand...

I was kind of buying into it, but you're right. It was very modern for its time. I feel a draw to it because of an underlying desire for demalgamation, so my emotions are confused.
 
View attachment 23292View attachment 23291

All Metro Police did was remove the word "Metropolitan".

I believe they switched from the Coat of Arms to the "daisy chain" ( as I remember it being called ) so Metro Police could be more distinctive.

On the other hand, I think employees and the public took Toronto's government more seriously when the put the Coat of Arms of buildings and bridges rather than the "daisy chain" that replaced it.
 
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That's a beautiful logo; definitely better than the daisy chain and the horrible current logo. How about just using the eyebrows of the man above instead?
 
Heimer Schnutts said:
That's a beautiful logo; definitely better than the daisy chain and the horrible current logo. How about just using the eyebrows of the man above instead?
Click to expand...

Sorry, about having a person in the picture. :) ( Incidentally, they named the Gardiner Expressway after him. )

Our Deputy Mayor recently took his portrait out of storage and hanged it in his office when he assumed mayoral responsibility.

He did great things for our city in the post-war era.
 
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