Amityville branding campaign unveils logo possibilities for residents to vote on

Amityville is looking to get on brand — and it's asking for residents’ help.

Village officials earlier this month unveiled four possible icons and lettering for Amityville’s new logo that will be placed on everything from roadway signs to online messaging to water bottles and T-shirts. Dozens of residents offered feedback at the unveiling at village hall, and Amityville has launched an online survey to gauge which option — or part of each design — is preferred.

The effort is part of the village’s ongoing work on its downtown, funded with $10 million from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative.

"It will be a strong directional tool for the people who aren’t familiar with Amityville ... they’ll know where the downtown is, where parking is," Mayor Michael O’Neill said of the new signs. "And it will standardize the look and the feel of all of that information." The village is paying the company $75,000 for the branding portion, with another $241,000 in state funding available for the remaining components, which includes determining signage locations and fabrication of the signs, O’Neill said.

Andrew Simons, a partner at Emphas!s Design in New York City, said right now the village has "multigenerations of signs."

Forming a strong brand first, Simons said, "informs the look and feel, and people start to see the signs and they realize" they are in Amityville before they even read it.

Simons, company partner Helene Benedetti and a working group of village elected and appointed officials, including O’Neill, spent months meeting to narrow down what Simons said started as 40 options to four icons with three typefaces.

The four icons and their colors use a delicateness in some imagery and wording and a boldness in others, he said. Thoughtfulness was applied to each design, Simons said, subtly incorporating the village’s architectural and maritime history and its sense of community even when considering the thickness of the letters and how they flow together in the word "Amityville."

"I don’t think any of these ideas were meant to knock you over the head," he said. "We’re giving the village a tool kit. ... If it doesn’t grow with them and doesn’t continue to be easily applicable for them, they’re not going to use it, so we’re literally creating different parts for them to use."

Of the nearly 50 people in attendance at the unveiling Nov. 15, 18 took a green sticker and placed it on one of four poster boards. The option with the "softer" font and an image of a green and blue tree got the most votes, garnering 11 stickers. The logo featuring an "A" outline with a green and blue sailboat inside and the same font as the first received four votes, while the option with an "A" made up of muted green, red and blue lines and a more block-type font got three votes. The icon with a nautical green, yellow and blue flag and tall block lettering did not get a single vote.

Eileen McDonald, 81, first picked that logo, calling it "simple but stunning." She later changed her mind and chose the multicolored "A." She said seeing a mock-up of the logo below an image of a boat on the bay was the deciding factor.

"I love that it shows the water," she said. "It’s sedate. Classy."

McDonald, who has lived in the village for more than 50 years, said the new branding was needed and would bring more visitors. "The village definitely needs a face-lift."

Adam Eury, 56, said he was torn between the tree and sailboat icons.

"It’s a great idea if they can execute it," he said of the work to revitalize the downtown. "I think it could bring in more restaurants and bars and make it more vibrant, more like Farmingdale and Bay Shore."

Nearly twice as many people filled out surveys with more detailed responses to the logos than voted. An online survey will be left up until Saturday to garner more reactions and votes, O’Neill said.

"It’s a work in progress," O’Neill said. "It’s the cliche of trying to find a way to keep one foot in the past and one in the future."