Brevard County commissioners aren’t typically in the business of designing works of art.
But a majority agreed last month to tweak the county’s blue-and-green “shooting star” logo – which appears on everything from letterheads to doors of county vehicles – to provide better contrast for the visually impaired.
That, and avoid another lawsuit under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. After all, taxpayers spent almost $32,000 last year to settle two South Florida visually-impaired men’s claims that the county’s website, www.brevardfl.gov, and its PDF files could not be read by their screen-reading programs.
So while county technicians work to make the website more accessible, Commissioner John Tobia said he wanted to make sure the county’s own logo could be seen better.
“This would show we’re meeting the ADA requirements,” he said last month.
Tobia, of Grant-Valkaria, represents District 3, which includes Melbourne Beach south to Sebastian Inlet on the barrier island. He has yet to file to seek a second term in the 2020 election.
Some months ago, Tobia sponsored a contest among residents to design a new logo with more contrast for the visually impaired.
At an August meeting, he presented his colleagues with 37 samples of the 72 he received from 22 artists. Some merely changed elements of the current logo, such as using different colors or shapes, while others abandoned it for palm trees, sunsets, sailboats, space shuttles, ocean waves and manatees. Tobia said he was impressed with the artistic talent so many residents showed.
But his colleagues expressed reluctance to any logo change.
“I love the logo we have now,” said Rita Pritchett, of Titusville. “It’s clean. It’s crisp. … If we need to make it darker, OK. But I wouldn’t vote for a change. It’s beautiful.”
How much it would cost to change the county logo all at once – requiring things like new stationery and new paint jobs for vehicle doors – wasn’t available.
County spokesman Don Walker later said Palm Bay in 2013 spent $50,000 for research and development and final rollout of a new logo. He said the county’s current logo cost $600 for design in 2012, plus $4,850 the next year for Digital Fusion Group to promote the new logo plus make it into embroidered forms for clothing and produce various other graphics.
But Tobia insisted he wasn’t interested in a full rollout. He would want the current logo gradually replaced as branded items wear out.
“If you run out of your 500 business cards, you’d get the new logo on the next ones,” he said. “If a truck has to be replaced, the new one would have the new logo.”
Commissioners didn’t take a vote, but rather agreed by consensus to have County Attorney Eden Bentley look over the designs and short-list those that met federal requirements for visibility. “The less change, the better,” said Vice Chair Bryan Lober, of Rockledge.
