RED ROCK — The time has come for Red Rock citizens to have their final say.
Residents have been invited to choose the township’s new logo in an online survey, after previously being asked to choose from three concepts in a prior survey.
The final survey opened on March 20 and will close on March 27.
The logo concepts were created by Fergus-based landscape architecture, planning and design firm, pl.ural, who specialize in working with rural communities.
Ashley Davis, community development officer, said that the logo design is a “small piece of a larger project” for the town of Red Rock.
The “project” to which Davis refers is Red Rock’s community interpretation plan – spun out of the 10-year community strategic plan developed by township council and administration back in 2022.
A “unified image” and “branding for the community” were a couple of key items highlighted in that strategic plan, according to Davis.
She noted that, at present, there are six different images used to represent Red Rock within the community and across the north shore.
After hiring pl.ural as consultants on the project in 2023, council and administration began active development of the community interpretation plan with funding from Destination Northern Ontario (DNO) and Parks Canada - Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.
“We’re excited to continue our working relationship with both DNO and the Lake Superior NMCA. Partnerships like these are essential for smaller communities like Red Rock not only from the community operations standpoint, but also on the tourism front, to ensure we present ourselves consistently across all methods of communication."
Using a phased approach, the community interpretation plan starts with choosing a new logo but extends beyond that to implementation on all signage across and outside of the township, in addition to planning and budgeting for that implementation.
Davis said the project has a total cost of about $60,000.
The township released their first survey in early 2023 to begin taking input from residents about what they think best represents the community of Red Rock – for example, what they love about Red Rock, three images that spring to mind in relation to the community, what makes the community special, etc.
Davis said a lot of respondents focused on Red Rock’s marina, the lake, and the community’s connection to nature.
The township followed up on their community-wide survey with an open house to reveal the survey’s findings, inform residents about the ongoing process to bring the community interpretation plan to life, and further identify the town’s “theme” moving forward.
Pl.ural gathered the information from the initial survey and the open house, then designed three concepts for community evaluation.
Another survey was held, with over 50 per cent of respondents leaning towards the third concept – leading to this final survey that is now live for residents.
Davis called it their “final survey run.”
“We’ve updated that initial concept based off of the comments and right now our community members are voting on the original winning concept versus the winning concept with the suggested recommendations from the survey comments,” Davis said.
Once the survey closes, the results will be shared with council who will make the final call.
Davis said council and administration are happy with how engaged community members have been with the community interpretation plan so far.
When asked what Red Rock means to her, Davis said that since she was born there she is a “little biased.”
“For me it’s always been a quiet, friendly community and the access to nature where I can walk out my back door, walk down to the marina, walk along the boardwalk, sit on a bench and listen to the wind, listen to the birds and the waves, and just enjoy nature . . . to have that in our backyard, I think we’re pretty lucky,” she said.
“Our tagline is ‘A Superior Treasure’ – and, for me, it really is. I’ve lived several other places along the north shore, southern Ontario and even internationally but there’s just something about Red Rock that keeps pulling me home.”
The online survey can be accessed here.
A paper survey is also available at the municipal office and at the Red Rock Public Library.
