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Mineral Wells council reviews city rebrand, tells vendor to reduce 'mountain' motif and return with tweaks
Summary
Council reviewed four logo options from vendor Black Dog after an RFP and stakeholder outreach; members split on whether to keep the current logo or adopt Option 1. Staff was directed to reduce the scale of the hill/mountain element, confirm font choice and supply black-and-white versions for practical use.
City of Mineral Wells staff presented the latest round of a citywide rebrand on an RFP the council placed in last year’s budget; staff said the city received about 28 proposals and selected Black Dog as the vendor after stakeholder interviews and a selection committee composed of council, staff and tourism/chamber representatives.
Staff said Black Dog conducted on-site stakeholder sessions with more than 100 community members, business owners and staff, then produced four logo options. Option 1 emerged from the survey as the top-ranked design and was described by several council members as "clean, modern [and] versatile." Staff said the project budget covers new stationery, vehicle decals and staff shirts and that the city has one more round of tweaks remaining.
Council discussion split. Some members said they preferred Option 1 for its simplicity and how it would reproduce on shirts and vehicles; others urged keeping or modestly updating the current logo. Several council members criticized aspects of the vendor's submissions. One council member said the designs looked like work an AI tool could produce: "It literally looks like I could've done this in the evening through chat g g GPT," (S8). The presiding officer (S1) said staff had invested substantial time in the process but requested that the vendor deliver a revised set that meets quality expectations.
Staff captured specific direction: reduce the scale of the hill/mountain graphic so it reads as local plateaus or hills rather than mountains; prefer the font used in Options 1, 3 and 4 over the block font in Option 2; provide black-and-white and negative-space versions to ensure legibility in small-format applications. Council also discussed community involvement and whether the city should have solicited community-submitted designs; staff noted the process was an open RFP that local firms could have bid on and that the city is contractually and financially committed to completing the vendor engagement but can require additional revisions.
Next steps: staff will return to the council with a revised set of designs that implement the requested changes and include practical-use mockups (black-and-white, vehicle, shirts, business cards).
