The Village of South River has begun the process of replacing its municipal logo.
The current black-and-white logo is nearly 40 years old and has an image of a river log driver on one side to represent the community's early timber history and a First Nations man on the opposite side.
Between the images of both men is a large square containing four smaller squares with each containing an image.
Three of the images are drawings of land and water animals of the area while the fourth depicts a sawmill blade to highlight South River's early forestry history.
This logo was created in 1982 to commemorate the village's 75th anniversary.
Clerk-administrator Don McArthur says it's become dated and lacks colour.
“It doesn't reflect the modern branding strategies,” he says. “And it was felt the timing was right as we become more involved with Almaguin Community Economic Development and try to get our image into the broader strategy that they're working on.”
McArthur says South River council has hired Karen Jones Consulting of North Bay to create the new logo.
“But the work is only at the design stage,” he says. “There are no pre-concepts at this point. It's really early and wide open at this point.”
McArthur believes as potential images emerge for the new logo there will be an opportunity for council's input on the early design.
Council has budgeted $1,500 for the project.
There is no exact deadline to have the work completed. But McArthur says when it's complete, residents can expect to see the logo appear on items like banners and advertisements.
However, he says one thing that won't happen is the village suddenly replacing things like letterheads with the new logo.
“We wouldn't obsolete anything,” McArthur says, adding the village will simply use up existing inventory rather than throw it out and only afterwards use the new logo on future documents and letterheads.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
