It isn't exactly clear whether the City of Wauwatosa has an official city logo, though the ubiquitous Tosa shield certainly comes close.
Also known as the city's emblem or seal, the shield is divided into red and white quadrants with four symbols signifying city attributes that Tosans want — or once wanted — their city to be known for.
The shield is also nearly 70 years old, and though there are no plans to retire it, a push is underway to expand the city's branding to include a new "design element" that could function kind of like a modern logo but that is cautiously not being described as a "logo" by proponents of the plan.
"This has been something we've been talking about for a while," Margaret Arney, who represents District 2 on the Common Council, said at an Oct. 21 meeting of the Government Affairs Committee. The current Tosa shield was developed in the pre-digital era, and now, “we’re kind of behind the times in terms of how cities identify themselves in different contexts.”
A new Tosa "design element" also would be a timely resource, she said, as the city prepares to redesign its website next year. She later told Tosa Forward News that the shield design "does not scale for digital formats," partly because its text and symbols are harder to decipher at small sizes.
Wauwatosa Communications Manager Eva Ennamorato also spoke in favor of the plan during a slide presentation at the committee meeting.
"The purpose of this request is to give us another tool," Ennamorato said. "It is not a replacement of our existing shield, but to come up with a design element that is flexible in a variety of digital spaces and really a modern approach option for a variety of communication materials."
Ennamorato cited similar examples at other organizations, such as the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, which still has a historic seal but incorporates a more modern design in some promotional materials. Cities commonly have both seals and other more versatile design elements, she added.
City staff are asking the council for approval to pursue a new design through a low-cost contract with a professional design firm.
Development of the Wauwatosa shield design was an even lower-cost option in 1957: It was the work of 9-year-old Suzanne Vallier, whose design won a city-wide contest that year.
In her design, the shield's four quadrants featured a Native American arrowhead, a mill taken from the city's early history as Hart's Mill, a home symbolizing Tosa as the "city of homes" and a cross signifying a "city of churches."
Decades later, in 1992, the cross was removed under pressure from proponents of the separation of church and state. In subsequent years, some residents suggested bringing back the cross, but instead, the shield's lower right quadrant now bears the words "In God We Trust," taken from the U.S. motto found on American currency.
Even today, the shield can be found everywhere in Wauwatosa, from the letterhead on city meeting agendas and the lower right corner of the city's website to the city's signature blue street signs from 124th Street to 60th Street.
In 2014, the Common Council discussed an earlier proposal to rebrand the city, and several council members made clear they were not fans of the shield, including Dennis McBride, now the city's mayor.
The shield design indicates "a community that's kind of stuck in its past," McBride said at the time, according to a Journal Sentinel report. "I don't see the dynamic Wauwatosa of today. I don't see a lot energy there; I see stasis."
A decade ago, those proposals to create a new logo never took off, but city leaders now are taking a different approach.
Ennamorato said adding a new design element would not mean a "mass replacement" of everything that now features the shield. Rather, creating an additional option could gradually be integrated into city branding as "just a flexible design element."
The measure passed, 5-1, with only Joe Phillips of District 6 voting no. It will be taken up by the full Common Council on Oct. 28.
