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The winners of West St. Paul’s logo contest were honored in a ceremony on Nov. 15, 1989. Inver Grove Heights graphic designer John Baskerville won $200 for his design featuring the city’s initials in the shape of a star.
“I’ve done a lot of corporate logo design work over the years,” Baskerville said in a Pioneer Press story. “It’s kind of a passion with me.”
The Logo Design
West St. Paul lacks any dominating geographic or historic symbol, which made the logo challenge that much harder. A number of submissions featured St. Paul landmarks
“I just looked for simplicity and design and contemporary feeling and some movement,” Baskerville said.
A design statement for the logo reads:
“A bold, flowing, contemporary design for a strong, forward-moving suburban community. The outline forms the letters WSP while the internal shape builds a star, symbolic of the freedom of the people, their leadership, and the quality of life they enjoy in West St. Paul.”
Centennial Contest
“I think it has a kind of energy to it,” said then Mayor Michael Bisanz, who served on a committee that judged the contest.
The logo contest was part of the city’s centennial celebration and drew a total of 208 entries from around the metro area. The city received a total of 208 entries for the contest, with prizes going to the top four plus a winner in the children’s contest. It was all part of the festivities to celebrate the city’s 100th anniversary.
Recent Efforts
The iconic logo is still used to today, despite a 2014 contest to develop a new logo. That contest didn’t deliver a usable logo, and in 2020 the City Council decided to stick with the existing logo, citing prohibitive costs to develop and implement a new one (slapping a new logo on the water tower, vehicles, monument signs, and more could run to $500,000). Instead they wanted to focus efforts on reworking the branding and developing a new tagline (“Close to it all” is universally reviled and not widely used).
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I cannot see WSP in this logo. It’s more like w,w,upside-down v.
Does this help?
https://wsptldr.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/2021_11wsp.jpg
Since I first saw this logo, I have thought it looks like a frog with a missing foot.