REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 10/04/2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Communications Division
SUBJECT:
Title
ORDINANCE AMENDING 1.04.160 AND 1.04.170 OF THE CORONA MUNICIPAL CODE TO ADOPT A NEW CITY CORPORATE SEAL
End
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to approve an ordinance of the City of Corona to amend section 1.04.160 and 1.04.170 of the Corona Municipal Code to adopt a new City Corporate Seal.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council introduce by title only, and waive full reading of Ordinance No. 3379, first reading of an ordinance approving amendments to Corona Municipal Code Chapter 1.04.160 and 1.04.170 to adopt a new City Corporate Seal.
Body
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The City of Corona’s 2021-2026 Strategic Plan Goal 5 is Sense of Place and includes the reimagining of the City of Corona’s brand, identity, and story. A primary component of the City’s identity is represented in the City Seal. Thus, the City Council provided direction to redesign the City Seal.
The current City Seal was first adopted in 1991. Since that time, much has changed in strategies for communications and best practices for design. A new City Seal was necessary to better represent the City’s history and aspirational goals laid out in the Strategic Plan. With the current City Seal being the ideation of a single resident, it was imperative that the new City Seal be developed through a consultative process that included as many perspectives and residents as possible. This is why we embarked on a robust community engagement rebranding process that included over 2,200 participants. Through this community engagement process, we were able to identify a consensus on key landmarks, imagery and motifs that best represent our City. These key elements include: Lemons, Mountains, Grand Boulevard, Circle, and Crown.
A brand is more than a logo, tagline, and some colors. It’s our story. It’s our heart. It’s the personality of the city. An honest brand can help unite our community around, both our history and who we aspire to be.
ANALYSIS:
On May 16, 2022, the Communications Division, in partnership with Pastilla, Inc. kicked off the branding project. The team successfully and thoroughly performed discovery research including audience research, competitive analysis, and a SWOT analysis of the current brand. The robust community engagement included a webpage, focus interviews, community survey, workshops, and pop-up engagements at City events. A total of over 2,200 residents provided their feedback on reimagining the City’s brand.
On February 15, 2023, Pastilla presented the City Brand Strategy and Brand Identity System. On May 17, 2023, the Corona City Council approved the implementation of the new brand including the new Wordmark and logo as well as provided their feedback on the development of the new City Seal draft.
The City Seal uses the visual elements, colors, and fonts of the brand identity system and incorporates the feedback shared by the community, including:
a. Reflecting and honoring Corona’s rich lemon history. The five ripe lemons and two lemon blossoms highlight that the City is known as “Lemon Capital of the World.”
b. Drawing inspiration from Corona’s unique mountain landscape. The clear blue sky and three mountain peaks represent Corona’s Cleveland National Forest.
c. Continuing the tradition of the Circle, a key city symbol. The line art in the seal depicts Grand Boulevard, a unique feature of the city with a one-mile circular street diameter and from which the City’s name “Corona” and nickname “The Circle City” derived.
d. Exploring the historic crown. Corona was first named South Riverside. The colony was nicknamed Queen Colony. Baron Hickey wrote a letter to City Founder Robert B. Taylor and emphasized the City should be named Corona because the circular Grand Boulevard is the city’s crown. Corona is the Spanish word for crown.
e. Drawing inspiration from classic, historical typefaces, reminiscent of Corona’s history.
On September 20, 2023, Staff presented updated draft options of the City Seal and Council provided their collective desired art direction.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact to the City as a result of this Ordinance.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
This action is exempt pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) of the Guidelines for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which states that a project is exempt from CEQA if the activity is covered by the commonsense exemption that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. This action is merely amending section 1.04.160 and 1.04.170 of the Corona Municipal Code to adopt a new City Corporate Seal
PREPARED BY: CINDY SOLIS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER
REVIEWED BY: SHAUGHN HULL, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1- Ordinance No. 3379
2. Exhibit 2- Ordinance No. 3379 (Redline)