City Logo

Uniquely Urbandale

Urbandale is strikingly sensible—and that’s a good thing. Our strong, simple, blue-colored logo has been iconic in representing what Urbandale is and what we stand for. But as technology moves forward, as Urbandale and the metro continue to grow, the needs of our brand are becoming more diverse. New devices, new technology, and new ways to interact and communicate with Urbandale have emerged since the creation of our logo more than 15 years ago. Users now engage with Urbandale in many diverse ways, and our brand should express the same simplicity and delight they have come to expect from Urbandale.

Logo Introduction

The Uniquely Urbandale logo was established at the beginning of 2004 as the official logo for the City of Urbandale, Urbandale Chamber of Commerce, and the former Urbandale Development Association. A few months later, the Urbandale Public School System adopted the logo for their official logo as well, creating a unique partnership between all entities. In 2020, the City recognized the logo was approaching the end of its life cycle and a refreshed logo was needed. The refreshed logo, designed internally by City staff, provides a unifying symbol of our quality of life and unique business opportunities in Urbandale.

Logo Construction

The Urbandale U is directly derived from the Uniquely Urbandale text, but uses increased visual weight, as well as being tipped up and forward to reinforce the ideas of progress and growth. The Diamond shape was refined to prevent a visual “underbite” at the point where the rounded form of the ‘U’ meets the bottom of the diamond. The U breaks out of the visual diamond plane, a hat tip to the old “swish” which did the same; no longer is the U confined to the diamond space—another reference to growth and progress. The color gradients have been removed to create a more modern and clean style and all design elements now uniformly pull the eye to the right. No other graphic elements should enter the area of isolation.