Contract for new city logo given to Factory Detroit

After several years and numerous attempts at recreating a new logo for the city of Birmingham, city commissioners unanimously accepted a proposal from Factory Detroit to create a new city logo at their meeting on Monday, December 10.

Factory Detroit is an advertising, marketing and branding agency located in Royal Oak. Their contract is for up to eight meetings with the city, design work and revisions, for $5,000. Additional meetings are at $500 per meeting.

The city issued a request for proposal (RFP) for an agency to do work for a new city logo in July, after working on creating a new logo for about two years, with designers at McCann Detroit who had responded to a previous RFP that had been sent out to advertising, public relation and design firms in order to have the city of Birmingham's logo rebranded. Commissioners felt the logos presented were a “work in progress,” which needed to be refined.

At the time, assistant to the city manager Joellen Haines said McCann Detroit and the ad hoc brand development committee (BBDC) felt their goal was to establish a new brand through a new logo that communicated the city’s image in a positive, evolving and refreshing way.

A January 2018, public online survey revealed that most people preferred an image with trees. In April, commissioners were initially split between just keeping the current city logo and having Haines work on developing a new RFP for a new firm to continue the design process. At the time, commissioner Mark Nickita was emphatic that the city of Birmingham deserved a dynamic, new logo.