By Bill Oakey – October 21, 2025

Welcome to the brand new Austin! From now on, we’ll have to get used to a different flavor of “Keep Austin Weird.” It looks like this:

Just think, we could have gotten a really nice, appropriate one like this. I happened to see it online.

Does the chosen logo evoke images of Austin’s nature trails, Barton Springs Pool or open mike nights at your favorite music venue?…Say What? Can you feel our “New Identity?” Hint: It is supposed to make you think of bridges, rivers and purple hill country sunsets. To me, it brings to mind a couple of items that you might find on your bathroom counter:

A $1.1 Million “Identify Branding” Project

I did some research into how all of this craziness came about. The bottom line is the taxpayer cost of $1.1 million. Supposedly, a public survey was taken, but I sure never heard anything about it. None of my friends ever mentioned it. How about you?

Be that as it may, the whole thing morphed into a humongous bureaucratic endeavor. Departments heads, division chiefs and facilitators, cogitating and strategizing over reams of paper and endless slide presentations.

This went on for month after month, year after year, until this fall, when the long-awaited grand unveiling finally took place. And there you have it, a quick summary of our city’s long, expensive journey to try to figure itself out. The public reaction can be summed up by this poll, taken by CBS Austin TV.

Oh, by the way, our new logo looks disturbingly similar to the one that Dallas has been using since the 1970’s.

Musical Accompaniment for This Blog Piece:

1. “Crazy” – Patsy Cline

2. “I’d Have to Be Crazy” – Willie Nelson

3. “Crazy On You” – Heart

4. “Crazy He Calls Me” – Linda Ronstadt