If it’s Broken, Don’t Unbroken it

Guest Editorial by James Bowie When a city or town adopts a new logo, it’s inevitable that at least a few local taxpayers will exclaim, “You paid how much? For that?” Such complaints are typically unwarranted, but in the recent case of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the critics may have a point.The city’s unique name refers to a riverside site where Native Americans would break cane stalks to make shafts for arrows. As a logo, the city had simply used the symbol from the Oklahoma state flag with a broken arrow added above. In an effort to re-brand, Broken Arrow retained Kansas City’s Kuhn and Wittenborn Advertising, who produced a new logo featuring a wordmark in the now-gauche Papyrus typeface and an unbroken arrow that looks as though it could have been launched by