Centennial Logo Approved With Minor Tweaks

If you purchased a T-shirt displaying the Manhattan Beach Centennial logo at the Hometown Fair, you are now the proud owner of a collector's item. After review Tuesday night, the City Council will request that two changes be made to the design before it is adopted as the official seal of the 100-year celebration.

After a public competition, the winning logo was unveiled at the Sept. 21 council meeting, where designer Ian Freshman, a Mira Costa graduate now working as a graphic designer in El Segundo, was recognized for his work.

Because of the nature of the competition, however, the winning design was chosen with little community input, and then-Mayor Mitch Ward requested it be sent back for public comment.

Community input, though limited, was received at a Centennial Committee meeting Sept. 27, and then-Mayor Pro Tem Richard Montgomery and Councilman Nick Tell, who head the committee, brought their recommendation back to the council Tuesday for final consideration by committee liaison Lindy Coe-Juell.

At Tuesday's meeting, Ward expressed disappointment that the logo strays so far from the city's official seal and reiterated his suggested changes for the logo, namely the inclusion of more aspects of the original seal, including its color scheme.

"I am not particularly keen on the UCLA colors," said Ward, who attended rival USC for his Information Technology certification. "Our city's colors are more vibrant.

"I would've liked the elimination of the word 'of,' " he added. "I've been in professional advertisement for 25 years. I can tell when something is unbalanced. I would've liked to see the word 'years' beneath the number 100." Ward expressed his concern that, though he had made these suggestions before, none were incorporated or even displayed for consideration.

"I too made comments to the artist," responded Tell. "He has a certain perspective, and I listened to him and was willing to defer to it. The artist had a concept and I accept that."

Soliciting a laugh from those present, Ward asked for more flexibility on the design, commenting, "This is not a Rembrant here."

Councilwoman Portia Cohen suggested the committee incorporate the two major changes Ward requested, removing the word 'of' and placing the word 'years' beneath the number 100. When the council agreed this was a reasonable suggestion, Ward appeared satisfied, saying with a laugh, "I love it, I don't even have a problem with the UCLA colors."

With the logo approved pending these changes, the committee will now focus on planning fundraising events that will take place throughout 2011. Committee meetings, which are open to the public, will continue to be held the first Monday of each month in the Police/Fire Conference Room of the Police and Fire Safety Facility at 420 15th Street in Manhattan Beach.

The committee continues to work on a permanent website, but for now encourages those interested in volunteering to visit its temporary page on the city's website.

"Everyone stay tuned," Tell said of the 2012 celebration, "because we're going to need hundreds more [volunteers] in order to execute this."