A No-Go For 'Warlike' Proposed Columbia Village Logo

Those looking for a new logo for the village of Harper's Choice are going back to the drawing board.

And they might look toward the logo with which the village started.

Negative feedback came in to the village community association following .

The article was referenced on an online message board and e-mail mailing list for residents of Hobbit's Glen, a neighborhood of Harper's Choice. The mailing list has more than 150 members, and the topic led to 13 responses –a sizable amount for the group – according to its moderator, Alan Klein.

"People were pretty unanimous" in opposition, Klein said.

But first, a little background:

The search for a new Harper's Choice logo began after a car crashed into the village's sign more than a year-and-a-half ago. The old logo – a rural-to-urban landscape shifting from a barn on an isolated hill into a dense collection of houses and businesses – was deemed "too busy" to be put on the new sign.

The Columbia Association, which is paying to replace the sign, had asked the village community association what it wanted. They chose a horse’s head, facing right and wearing a bridle, placed above two crossed swords.

It is a nod to Robert Goodloe Harper – the village’s namesake – who served in the cavalry in the 18th century. The village’s name comes from his choice of a plot of the Carroll family’s farm.

Back to the present:

People didn't like it.

A Hobbit's Glen resident named Rebecca Johnson said she found the proposed new logo "unacceptable due to its violent connotations."

"I don't think we want crossed swords to be our public emblem. I don't think we want to appear that that's what we revere here in Harper's Choice," she wrote on the mailing list. "It seems that there are other events in Harper's life that could more constructively inspire a logo and would better convey what Harper's Choice aspires to be as a community today."

"We got feedback saying that it was, I guess, not in the spirit of Columbia, and that it was more warlike, although it wasn't meant to be," said Evan Rose, chairman of the Harper's Choice Village Board. "My understanding was that the swords up was more warlike and swords down was more about protection – at least that's what I've been told."

But, he added, "We wanted to make sure that what we put out was compatible with what the people would like to see. So we're going to go back and take a look at redesigning."

Cynthia A.S.H. Coyle, along with being a Hobbit's Glen resident, is the chairwoman of Columbia Association and the association's representative to the Harper's Choice Village Board.

Coyle saw the feedback on the Hobbit's Glen mailing list and "related the unhappiness immediately to the village," she said.

With the horse's head logo no longer on the table, there is still a need for a new logo. Earlier this week, Coyle and community members met with the people who will design it.

One idea they discussed was revising the old landscape logo and simplifying it.

"They're trying to come up with something that has some meaning," Coyle explained.