‘I thought it looked horrible.’ Ardsley residents criticize design of new village logo

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A new village logo has residents divided in Ardsley. It was a design that cost the village a pretty penny. "I thought it looked horrible, it looked very corporate, very stark,” says Ardsley resident Michael DeSimone. DeSimone is referring to the new village of Ardsley logo which was unveiled last week. "I didn't understand what the connection was to the village," he added. He's not the only resident that feels this way. Dozens of comments criticizing the new logo - which appears on the village's website, their official communications and signage - appeared on a local Facebook group. Mayor Nancy Kaboolian says creating a new logo has been in the making for three years as part of the village's comprehensive plan to modernize and rebrand the village for economic viability and revitalize the downtown area and business district. "I think it's clean, I think it's evolving, I think it's connected, I think it's accessible and will move the village forward," the mayor said of the logo. Clean and accessible maybe, but certainly not original, according to DeSimone. "I ran a reverse Google image search because I knew I had seen something similar somewhere, and to my horror, it was page upon page upon page of very similarly looking logos," he said. Residents say this makes the price tag, a whopping $75,000, all the more shocking. They wonder why they hired a design firm, instead of reinvesting back in the community. "We have a plethora of graphic design students...They could've run a contest, as the village has done in the past, or even given a small scholarship or reward," said DeSimone. But to the naysayers, Mayor Kaboolian said, "I do think in the long run this is money well spent because I do think this is a stepping stone in our comprehensive plan of moving the village forward." "