VISTA — The City Council is preparing to select a new logo that will represent the city for years to come and is requesting input from residents on three options created by a local designer.
Vista’s current logo has been in use for around 20 years, and features a simple outline of a mountain range and a spiral-style sun above the city’s name and the state. The logo is separate from the city’s official seal and features a sun and various fruits grown in the city.
Back in 2024, Vista leaders agreed to pursue a new logo to better reflect a modern image and identity for the city. The city put out a call for artists and selected Vista-based graphic designer Jaimie Muehlhausen, whose credits include work for major brands like Vans, Surfer Magazine, ESPN, and Tony Hawk.
After presenting initial designs to the City Council in October, Muehlhausen and city staff returned on Tuesday with additional alternatives featuring different colors and fonts.
All council members, except Mayor John Franklin, said they were generally happy with the logo options. The council unanimously agreed to delay a final decision and solicit community feedback via an online survey.
“I would really just like to put it up to the public to decide from those designs,” said Councilmember Corinna Contreras. “I would love to hear more because I don’t want five people to decide, you know, the whole future of Vista’s logo and branding.”
The logo survey is now live, and residents can access it here. Respondents will be able to vote for one of three logo options and leave a comment if they wish.
The survey will close on March 16, and feedback will be considered as part of the city’s discussion about the new logo in April.
Council discussion
Council members varied in their preferred logo options among the three designs, all of which incorporate a circular shape, bright colors, bold, modern fonts, and imagery of the mountains, ocean, sun, and trees.
Once approved, the new logo would be phased in for the city’s business cards, signage, and digital and print uses.
“I’m seeing quality and vibrancy and clarity displayed for us,” Councilmember Melendez said of the design options. “Our current logo is crowded and dated and not really communicating much to the public in a digital format. These designs communicate, very well, the city of Vista identity.”
One of the three designs, Option 3, uses a font suggested by Councilmember Jeff Fox, featuring letters that follow the curve of the circle. Other council members said the font may be too casual for a city logo.
Franklin advocated for the city to pause the process and solicit more designs from people “throughout the world.” If the council receives a design they like, they could then work with a designer again to make it usable for the city, he said.
“I just don’t see a design here that I like for the next 20 years for Vista,” Franklin said of the options presented on Tuesday.
Other council members and City Attorney Walter Chung raised concerns about ensuring that a submitted design hasn’t been generated by artificial intelligence. If it were, it would be difficult for the city to trademark or copyright the image, Chung said.
Fox also noted that the process must come to an end at some point and said receiving dozens of entirely new designs from the community would lead to additional work and costs for the city.
“I know that when I’ve worked with clients, if you keep iterating, you’ll iterate in circles forever,” Fox said. “You’ll never actually lock in something, and so at a certain point, you get to a point where you realize that you’re not really going to progress any further.”
