New Minneapolis sailboat logo sunk by city council

Minneapolis said "no go" to a new logo design for the city.

The design team at the City of Minneapolis last month revealed a refreshed look for the city's logo, removing one of the two sailboats from the "City of Lakes" design that has been in place since the 1980s – and giving it a splash of color.

But despite getting the approval of two city council committees, the Star Tribune reports a last minute U-turn from some council members on Friday has shelved the design, as they voted in favor of keeping the existing logo.

The newspaper notes said one of the main reasons behind the sudden rejection was money, with the council concerned that it would "take years, and a significant amount" to replace the existing logo on city property.

This in turn could cause confusion as the city would end up for a time with two visible logos.

"We’ll end up in a situation where a decade, two decades, three decades down the road, we’re going to have two logos out there, which my understanding from a branding standpoint is probably not the best thing," Council Member Andrew Johnson said, according to MPR.

There were general concerns about the theme of the logo too, MPR reports, with Council Member Alondra Cano saying: "I don't support the sailboats as our city's image. I don't know that that represents my constituents or the people who live in my ward."

The new logo was to be gradually phased into all official City of Minneapolis documents and publications, but its further roll-out to other city property is where it ran into a problem.

MPR notes that there's "no money to sandblast its old emblem off every sign, vehicle and manhole cover" where the two sailboat logo currently appears.