Suwanee unveils new logo

SUWANEE - Suwanee City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to adopt the new logo created by Hein van der Heijden, an Atlanta-based, award-winning designer with 25 years' experience.

"Suwanee is an uncommon city," said van der Heijden. "Its residents have fun living there and there's a lot going on. I wanted the community's logo to reflect that. I used a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters and dropped the capital S in the logo's word art to help suggest the community's originality and playfulness. The graphic offers a bird's-eye view of Suwanee, bubbling with color, activities and energy."

Suwanee's new logo will replace one that features a lamp post and has been used since 1998. The Suwanee S, another branding mark utilized by the city, will continue to be used along with the new official logo.

"Suwanee has changed a lot since 1998," said Public Information Officer Lynne DeWilde. "We felt that the lamp post no longer offered an accurate representation of our dynamic community. Our goal was to create a logo that is more unique and remarkable, that better represents Suwanee's personality today, and that indicates that our community is focused on the future."

Suwanee began the redesign process in the spring. After receiving 28 statements of qualification from design professionals, mostly from metro Atlanta but also from six other states, the City selected six finalist firms to participate in a design competition. Each finalist presented three or more Suwanee logo design concepts.

As a result of the competition, the City selected van der Heijden, a native of the Netherlands who came to the United States four years ago. Principal at his Atlanta-based DesHein visual design service firm, van der Heijden's "bucket list" had, until now, included creating a city logo.