Council backs community-led logo refresh, aims to preserve heritage

The City Council agreed on Feb. 17 to begin a limited, community-led refresh of Liberty Lake's official logo ahead of the city's 25th-anniversary activities.

"This is a logo refresh," the mayor said during discussion, distinguishing a refresh from a full rebrand and noting prior estimates for a full rebranding project. Staff and council members emphasized preserving the logo's heritage elements while improving reproduction for digital and physical uses.

Council members raised concerns about losing historical meaning: one member urged contacting original designers and noted the logo's embedded binary "zeros and ones" that were intended to reference the city's technology-hub aspirations. Several members and public commenters said they support retaining core elements — including the lake motif — but modernizing the font and simplifying fine detail to make the emblem easier to reproduce on vehicles, apparel and digital platforms.

Staff proposed a community-engagement approach that starts with a small steering group and works through the Community Engagement Commission and Parks & Arts Commission. Ideas discussed included a focused contest or student engagement through local graphic-design programs, a temporary anniversary logo for the 2026 celebration, and limiting staff costs by using in-house concepting and targeted professional design input for final-file production.

Council did not adopt a specific design at the meeting but directed staff to proceed with outreach and to bring back concepts and a proposed process; staff said the Community Engagement Commission will begin discussion at its next meeting.