Gatineau, Que. police pausing rebrand after concerns raised about origin of new bird graphic

Gatineau Police unveiled their new logo, featuring a stylized bird, a darker blue crest and gold-coloured borders. (SPVG)

The Gatineau Police Service (SPVG), say they’re cancelling a planned rebranding with a new logo, after citizens raised concerns about the origin of a visual element included in the design.

The police service unveiled its new branding on Wednesday, featuring a stylized bird, and darker blue shield and gold-coloured borders.

Residents, however, noticed the bird graphic featured prominently in an Adobe blog post about minimalist logo design, where George Bokhua was named as the designer of the image. The same logo is also used by a Florida-based air cargo sales and consulting group called Air Jet International.

In a news release on Thursday, the police service said the bird image came from a stock image library used by the City of Gatineau’s graphic design team.

“Further checks are underway to determine whether the use of this visual element complies with the terms of the license held by the city for this stock image library,” the police said in French. “This decision was made in the interest of transparency, institutional rigour, and to avoid any ambiguity regarding the use and ownership of the symbol.”

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Police said the process of developing a new visual identity for the service began 10 months ago, in collaboration with the city’s communications department, which police say was responsible for developing the graphic.

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Police employees voted on the preferred logo after two concepts were presented. Police said they were never informed that a stock image was used as part of the design.

The new logo was meant to be added to vehicles and uniforms over the course of the next five years, but the police service now says it has immediately withdrawn the logo and will be reverting to its previous branding.

A police spokesperson told CTV News Ottawa the unveiling of the new logo cost approximately $8,000.

“Since the Gatineau Police Service collaborated with the City of Gatineau’s communications department on this project, the only costs incurred were for a promotional video, some visuals, and two prototype vehicles: a patrol car and a motorcycle. The total cost was $8,000,” Patrick Kenney said in an email, translated from French.

“No additional expenses were incurred because we had planned for the two logos to coexist for approximately five years; the vehicles and uniforms would have been replaced as part of the normal equipment renewal cycle.”