![OAC_logoforweb[blue]](http://artbeat.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/OAC_logoforwebblue.png)
It’s my great pleasure to announce that Seattle’s arts office has a new brand, complete with new logo and tagline and perhaps best of all, a (slightly) revised name: Office of Arts & Culture Seattle.
Personally, I’m really excited about this project because I believe that our office is doing great, fantastic work in our community – we’re working to make Seattle a better place to be an artist, work at a cultural organization and enjoy the abundance of art offerings our city produces. But when I started here, I didn’t feel like we were telling that story well enough. Our logo had (admittedly) been designed without much process and our name was clunky and so hard to say that most people shorted it to the acronym “OACA” (pronounced something like “o-walk-a”), which if you hear without reference sounds a bit like somebody sneezing.
How we got to this point was confusing as well: originally we started out as the Seattle Arts Commission in 1971. In the 2000s we moved to Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and then several years later Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. And here we are changing it again – but this time I believe we’re acting on a more strategic decision. We’re getting rid of “affairs” (no need to sound pretentious) and presenting a logo that takes it down to the basics – A & C for Arts and Culture. We also have a new tagline, “Making Art Work,” that encompasses both what we do as well as our attitude.
While I’m incredibly proud of this new brand system for our office, at the end of the day a logo is just a stand-in for the product and service that it represents. So we’re going to get back to work supporting the artists and organizations that make Seattle a special place. I hope you keep an eye out for the new mark and if you do, let us know where you saw it and how it looks.
And if you’re talking about us in the community, I beg of you: please call us the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, or if you have to shorten it, Seattle’s Arts Office. If I never again hear “OACA,” this project will be a success.
– Calandra Childers, Communications Manager
P.S. If you are a partner organization looking to update your materials, you can find every possible size/color combo/file type of the new logo here.
Raku says
Professional logo consistent with current standards. “Making Art Work” also good But is not too short?
barb says
Your journey is so similar to ours here in North Vancouver, Canada. Four years ago we said farewell to the ‘North Vancouver Office of Cultural Affairs’ and rebranded as The Arts Office – tagline… Arts -Culture-North Vancouver. Hoping your new look and feel is as positive an experience as ours!
Calandra Childers says
Hi Raku – thanks for your comments. We felt like the tagline needed to be really short and sweet to be effective. We’ve never had one before though – so we’ll see how it works!
And thanks to Barb for sharing your comments about the rebranding of the North Vancouver Arts Office – sounds like good change!
john says
How are you doing now, almost 2 year from the post. Any progress to share?
Calandra Childers says
Great questions, John. Two years out and we’re still loving our brand! The logo is working well, and we’ve nearly eradicated the acronym “OACA”. It’s given us a fresh, clean platform for our messaging. Do you have a branding project in the works?