Skip to main content

An Artful Change in Town Center


 

Did you know that’s Columbia’s Town Center has a new logo?


Photo Kerry G. Johnson


The Town Center Community Association Board of Directors is pleased to announce the winner of the Logo Contest that ended in late December. Mr. Kerry G. Johnson's entry was voted on by residents and selected as the winner across many excellent entrants.

Mr. Johnson is a resident of Howard County and is proud to have had his first home on Ring Dove Lane right in Town Center. (Town Center Facebook page)

I like it. I especially like this explanatory description shared by the artist:

I designed the contemporary logo to subtly showcase the metropolitan and suburban character of the Tower Center community of Columbia. The multicolored graphic tree symbolizes the broad and diverse people that live, work, shop, or visit the Tower Center. If you closely review the solid and sturdy tree "person," it's supporting a foundation that's holding up the residents and businesses of the Town Center Community Association. 

Kerry G. Johnson is a professional artist who lives in Columbia. From his website:

Kerry is an award-winning illustrator and art director whose work has been published in numerous newspapers, magazines, books and websites. He has illustrated several children's books along with a unique line of multicultural greeting cards. Kerry is a hands-on creative director with the vision to inspire, collaborate, and execute fun and illustrative solutions.

As I took a look around Mr. Johnson’s website, I thought about how many times students are steered away from studies and careers in the arts. 

“What are you going to do with that?”

“You’ll never make a living doing that.”

Johnson uses his artistic gifts and training to make connections in numerous ways: book illustrations, greeting cards, caricature events, school visits, digital artwork, teaching, and, of course logos and rebranding. As I scrolled through his Twitter feed I got a sense of someone who is always learning and finding new ways to connect his art with the world. 

Examining this topic made me wonder about all the other logos of the Columbia Villages in use today. I believe that some of the older Villages have updated/transformed or outright changed those images. Most of us are well aware of the iconic artwork featuring Columbia’s neighborhoods created by Gail Holliday in Columbia’s early years, many of which are now on display on the far side of Lake Kittamaqundi. 

They are beautiful. I love them. But it’s also true that each village has the responsibility of keeping their public branding image both recognizable and current in today’s world.

I’d love to do a post solely on the old and the new of all the Columbia Village logos. Now that I’m thinking of it which of the images below, if any, was the previous Town Center logo?*


In the meantime, congratulations to both Town Center and Mr. Johnson for a successful collaboration and a happy and prolonged life for their new image. 

You can find Kerry G. Johnson on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on his website.

You can learn more about Town Center here.




*Those of you who have lived here longer than I are probably shaking your heads at me. I’d be sincerely grateful if you could share your wisdom on this.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more