Farmersville town logo voted best by Fresno Bee readers. Here’s where others ranked

As the Visalia City Council puts its logo controversy to bed by selecting a new design, here are the results from The Fresno Bee’s town logo vote poll conducted in mid-June.

The poll – where people could vote for which city has the best logo in the region – received 105 responses.

The Bee gathered a collection of 10 logos from some of the region’s local Central Valley government agencies, from Merced to Kings counties.

The Tulare County city of Farmersville’s logo was favored by 33% of the voters.

In 2022, Visalia’s next-door neighbor updated its basic, rectangular logo that could have been mistaken for a label on a box of grapes. The city spent less than $500 using the company 99designs.com for its new logo, according to city clerk Rochelle Giovani.

The result has familiar elements of the old one, a simple oval featuring a windmill amid rolling fields in front of Sierra foothills and a skyline giving Farmersville logo a modern update.

The old logo, which was illustrated by then-city planner Karl Schoetter and used widespread was never adopted as the official city logo.

The official logo at that point was the “cornucopia” design done in 1960 when the city was incorporated but the logo was not used, and citizens were not familiar with it.

On July 15, the Visalia City Council selected a new logo after a social media outcry two months ago over a minimalist design forced the council to organize an contest that drew 87 entries.

The council will officially reveal the artist of the winning design – and present the individual with a $1,500 prize – at its Aug. 5 meeting.

The City of Visalia has spent $150,000 in two different packages – $75,000 for human resources marketing and rebranding, and $75,000 for the city brand refresh that included the minimalist “Breaking Through the V” logo and 1,500 different assets, said city spokeswoman Allison M. Mackey.

▪ Second place, with 22 percent of the votes, went to the City of Fowler which features different fruits. Represented are peaches, orange, pomegranate, among other fruits. The city was incorporated in 1908.

▪ The City of Hanford took third place with 12 percent of the vote. Earlier this year, Hanford introduced a new supplementary logo and tagline to assist staff with various marketing efforts, from retail recruitment to tourism and events. Hanford’s new logo did not replace the “Planning Tomorrows” blue and yellow city’s seal.

The poll also included the following cities:

▪ The City of Sanger (fourth place with 11% of votes) whose logo features the General Grant Tree, also known as the nation’s Christmas tree, as the prominent image. Sanger was designated as the “Nation’s Christmas Tree City” in 1949 by the U.S. Postal Service.

▪ The City of Tulare (fifth place with 10% of votes), which was incorporated in 1888 and features a scenery of a creek, tree, rolling hills, horse-drawn plow, and a house.

▪ The City of Selma, also known as the Raisin Capital of the World, keeps it simple: A globe of the world with a bunch of Thompson grapes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The city was incorporated in 1893.

▪ The City of Madera’s logo is more text than graphic elements. The city’s name straddles the middle of bars that form the image of the state. Madera is known as the city in the middle of the state.

▪ The City of Fresno, the Valley’s biggest city, has several logos in use. One of them features grapes hanging from a vine – a future update might have to focus on other crops that might have felt left out.

▪ The City of Lemoore, with its simple design dominated by a rising – or setting – sun above a rolling field and a spacious background. Lemoore, home of a U.S. Naval Air Station, was incorporated in 1900.

▪ The City of Merced, like Visalia, also likes to feature the iconic Fox Theatre in its logo. However, in this design, the theater tower dominates the graphic. The city was incorporated in 1889.

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