City designates tourism week, announces new brand concepts

National Travel and Tourism Week

The City of Dripping Springs City Council unanimously passed a proclamation to designate the week of May 2 through 8, as "National Travel and Tourism Week."

According to the proclamation, “the power of travel has been a consistent driver of Dripping Springs’ economy and workforce.

“Eighty-three percent of tourism businesses are owned by small business owners,” Pam Owens, President of the Dripping Springs Visitors Bureau said. “I had the opportunity to attend a House Committee on tourism a few weeks ago, and explained to them what tourism looked like in Dripping Springs. A couple of them told me they had never thought about weddings, wineries, breweries and distilleries being tourism… I let them know how important that was to tourism in Dripping Springs.”

Last year, the coronavirus pandemic devastated every sector of the travel industry with staggering declines in 2020 compared to 2019, affecting every community in the country, including Dripping Springs. The City Council urges citizens to join in recognizing the critical role this industry plays in the State of Texas.

New branding coming soon

In the April 13 meeting of the City Council, Communications Director Lisa Sullivan presented concepts for branding Dripping Springs. She stated, “I’m not talking about changing who we are. I’m talking about messaging who we are. Our brand is not just our logo. It’s our identity and personality, our voice and it’s who we are and what we stand for.”

Sullivan added that the City is often the first place people go to look for information, and with the rapid growth the city is experiencing, now is the time to brand itself. The goal is to “enhance the brand to include what Dripping Springs is evolving into, while maintaining heritage.” She stated that Dripping Springs isn’t just the ‘Gateway to the Hill Country’ anymore. It’s a destination.

Sullivan explained that the current logo is the city seal with colors that are associated with the school district. “It’s time to get our own identity,” she said. The brand will reflect all the reasons people move here, including: hill country openness and outdoors, dark skies, community pride and connection, schools and family. The City plans to add additional colors to its brand, create a new logo, that is not just the city seal, and fonts that are cohesive. Those colors include keeping garnet to symbolize community and schools; and adding deep blue to symbolize the dark skies and openness, light blue to symbolize picturesque Dripping Springs and green to symbolize ‘Gateway to the Hill Country’ open spaces and parks.

The process, which has been in the works for about four months, is still underway. Sullivan, collected input from an internal committee, input from city and community leaders, and a survey from city employees to come up with the recommendations. She says they started with more than 30 logo concepts and taglines and had narrowed both down to a top three with a clear frontrunner. “Open spaces, friendly faces” is the top choice for the tagline.

Councilmember Wade King said he liked the branding, but also commented, “I’m mildly concerned about the term open spaces. It seems like every new subdivision takes away our open spaces, and we’re losing it. But maybe it’s something good to have in the tagline to hold on to like a memory.”

Counncilmember Travis Crow echoed King’s remarks and said he needed time to sit with the recommendations, especially the idea of removing ‘Gateway to the Hill Country’ from the tagline.

No community input will be gathered. Sullivan said in response to a citizen’s question about community feedback, “We are not going to be putting it out to the community. We are the committee and feedback from the City Council and City leaders will determine the final logo… everyone has a different opinion, and no matter what we do, someone is going to be unhappy, and rather than opening it up to have a lot of disappointed people, we trust the committee and the city leaders and their expertise.” Sullivan added that she would listen to individuals if they wanted to contact her directly.

Next steps include starting the web design, creating brand guidelines, working with Public Works Coordinator Aaron Reed on wayfinding and other signage, and working with photographers of Dripping Springs to get fresh shots for the website and marketing. The City estimates that the transition to the new brand will kickoff in June.

City accepts appointment applications

The City is currently accepting applications for various Boards, Committees, and Commissions. Applications can be downloaded from the City’s website and emailed (acunningham@ cityofdrippingsprings. com), mailed (PO Box 384, Dripping Springs, TX

78620) or hand-delivered (City Hall – 511 Mercer Street, Dripping Springs, TX 78620) to the attention of the City Secretary.

Applications are due May 31, 2021. Descriptions of the City’s boards, commissions and committees can be found on the City website, cityofdrippingsprings.com.