Down below, on the left is the new City of Des Moines logo. Right next to that is the old logo. The old logo definitely looks dated, and was desperately overdue for a makeover, having been designed by cavemen in the late paleolithic era (oftentimes referred to colloquially as “the 70’s”). The new logo looks better, but there are elements that do not speak to me at all.

My thoughts on the new logo parallel Mike Templeton‘s on many aspects. I love the smooth blue gradient on the arch. The font was an excellent choice; it has a very causal urban feel to it. The placement of “Des Moines” beneath the left foundation of the arch, with the right section sweeping down off canvas is a beautiful design element. The white silhouette of the city skyline with lighter blue gradients acting as a background is gorgeous. I personally would have moved the “City of” to be immediately above “Des Moines”, a bit off center, to pull the eye inward. As it stands, the “City of” just kind of dangles there, as though it’s waiting for someone to cut it off completely; like a hangnail. But overall, many of the design choices are excellent and work well for a city logo.

The problem is: this isn’t a logo for Des Moines.

Granted, it is technically the new City of Des Moines logo, but it probably shouldn’t be. This very simply looks like a logo design intended for another city. The most prominent element of the logo is the giant blue arch. Des Moines the city doesn’t have a giant arch design element; I don’t quite understand why Des Moines the logo does. Supposedly the element is meant to capture the essence of our new pedestrian bridges spanning I-235. While those bridges are definitely attractive, there’s only three (thanks @awesome_andrea), and they’re fairly recent integrations into Des Moines’ overall infrastructure. I don’t know that they define Des Moines enough to be such a prominent element in our logo. To me, it looks like we’re highlighting our giant arch, which doesn’t really exist.

Let’s see, who around us has a giant arch? Well, our neighbor to the south does. Maybe they would like to use our new logo design for themselves. As it stands, I’d rather see a new logo that actually shows what makes Des Moines unique. I don’t know exactly what that might be, but it has to be something better than a non-existant giant arch.

UPDATE: I just found the St. Louis logo. Dear god, is it even possible? We actually have a better St. Louis logo than St. Louis does.