The Arlington County government is trying to choose a new logo that is more representative of its constituents, but Arlingtonians don’t think the designs are representative of them at all. The official Twitter of the Arlington County government released five potential logo designs in a poll on April 26.
Voting is now open for Arlington County's new logo! A panel of community members has narrowed more than 250 submissions to five options–and now it's your turn to choose! Learn more: https://t.co/kjHaL0fHfN pic.twitter.com/q5IqhxarZ8
— Arlington County (@ArlingtonVA) April 26, 2021
A panel of Arlington community members narrowed down more than 250 submissions and gave five brightly-colored options for Arlingtonians to choose from. However, folks on Twitter are calling the logo selections awful and mediocre. To be fair, the weirdly sleek designs seem to represent a grocery store or an airport instead of a historically-significant county. Here are just a few of the comments that folks made about the designs:
These are all pretty ugly honestly. They’re so corporate. It should be more stately and timeless. These will look so dated in a few years.
—
Sinclairitea (@Sinclairitea) April 27, 2021
Goodness! Just when I thought the current logo was the worst. Did they try to come up with the lamest and least representative logo for county? Yuck all around.
— Michelarchange (@LucyLou_Demorin) April 27, 2021
In December, the Arlington County Board approved a process to replace the current logo after a wave of protests for racial justice during the summer. Known as the Arlington House logo, the image features the plantation home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. In a letter to local news site, ArlNow, the Arlington NAACP called the logo “divisive and racist” for its commemoration of the plantation that utilized slave labor.
The Arlington County Board began accepting logo design submissions from members of the Arlington community in an effort to “engage the community in choosing a replacement for Arlington House as Arlington’s visual identity.” Ironically, only the 14-member panel had a say in which designs would be considered for a final vote.
You can vote on Arlington County’s new logo online until May 26. You may choose up to two options.
Before becoming Research Editor, Damare Baker was an Editorial Fellow and Assistant Editor for Washingtonian. She has previously written for Voice of America and The Hill. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied international relations, Korean, and journalism.
