From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Matt DeTurck, artistic director at the Little Theater, filling in for Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made more than 50 years ago, when the city of Rochester was struggling to find a unifying identity.

Thankfully, young graphic designer Lee Green was on the job, and he designed our now iconic Rochester City mark the Flower City logo, but good or great graphic design is more than just a simple picture.

An icon, a logo has to represent something, and somehow, through line and form, it has to inspire emotion in people.

That's a lot to ask of one little logo.

But the Rochester city mark has risen to the challenge and stood the test of time and the story of how it was created and how it fuels community pride is inspiring and rich enough that there is now a feature length documentary about it.

The film City Mark, a Rochester Icon, premiered back in May and has been rolling out free screenings around the Rochester community, with more coming up.

And I'm so excited today to chat with some of the people responsible for the mark, for the film, and for its impact on the community.

Joining us, here in the studio is Erich Lehman, artist, designer and curator of Gallery 1975.

Barbara Pierce, the City of Rochester communications director.

Hello.

Nate Miller, City of Rochester digital media specialist and filmmaker involved with the doc.

And joining us via teams is Lee Green, the city of Rochester's first graphic designer and the city mark originator.

Hi, Lee.

Hello.

Thank you all so much for being here.

I, as someone who, like, is a graphic designer now and artistic director at the little but worked at the city.

I think graphic design is so important, but I also have so much community pride.

And so literally, when I was told that the city was working on a documentary about the logo, I was like, oh, this is perfect.

Like, this is so exciting.

And, I think even better.

It's really good.

It's a really good film and like it.

I feel like re instilled in me that sense of pride about our community.

So huge kudos about it.

I do want to start with being like, what?

What was the impetus behind being like, you know what?

We're going to make a documentary about a logo.

The impetus.

Well, I am not, I'm not from Rochester, but I've lived here for a while.

I moved up in 2010.

Spent a while as a news photographer.

And, it's everywhere.

It's just such a great story.

I mean, long story short, it's a great story.

It's something that we can all, agree on.

Everybody's doing something different with it.

I started working for the city in 2018 and the communications bureau, and, and we had a little bit of downtime during pandemic years.

So I started.

But, you know, this is something that I am in a unique position.

We as a communications team are in a unique position to, to to get to the bottom of this.

Where did it come from?

You know, like, everybody's using it.

Get some questions answered.

So, yeah.

Matt, it was the first meeting I had.

So I joined the city with Mayor Evans in January of 2022.

And we looked back and it was January 11th, 2022 when Nate and I met for the first one on one.

So I gave the lay of the land and he said, hey, FYI, in 2026, this mark is going to be 50 years old.

And he had a thought about this documentary already formulating in his mind.

So I was all about it.

And I'll tell you, it's even bigger than the documentary is.

You know, there's a book that's going to we're going to be putting out.

There was a festival that we held this summer.

We blew it out of the water, and the full comms team got behind Nate's vision to celebrate this moment.

And it's.

I don't think we could have picked a better year to take some moment.

Take some time to celebrate Rochester Pride.

I think that's what's so, like amazing about this is, again, it's like, that's kind of what you always hope for is something that you make or you do like, kind of has that kind of sense of like people rallying around it, that sense of community.

So, Lee, I want to ask you, like, as the first graphic designer for the city, did you think that something that you made would have this kind of longevity to it?

You know, I never I never thought about it, at the time.

I, I hoped it would have a degree of longevity, but, marks for corporations and cities sometimes have a way of going through iterations, and changes have very little to do with the mark and more about folks that are, you know, managing the organization.

So, it's very gratifying that it has endured as it has.

And, you know, it's exceeded my expectations in terms of endurance for sure.

Absolutely.

I which I think is amazing about it.

Can you take a moment and pull us all the way back to, like, your initial like, thought process or as you're making it like, there is, an amazing part in the doc which talks about you combining some visual elements.

Can you walk us through a little bit of what makes that flower logo tick?

Oh, yeah.

And, and and let me if I can just is for a moment before that, you know, speak to, what was going on within the city and the visual expressions of the city at the time.

Sure.

This was not just about a mark, but really about pulling together all those design and visual systems in an integrated way.

They were very fragmented.

Which was really a missed opportunity for the city.

You know, everything from, newspaper, which there was quite a bit of at the time, television publications.

And, of course, the fact that the city really didn't have a simple, you know, symbolic mark to represent it.

It was represented by a city seal, like most cities.

And and that city seal was an amalgam of, history.

Probably input from many, many people at the time.

So it didn't function very well as a clear, you know, distinctive symbolic representation.

The market self evolved after about a year, that I had been on the job as a designer.

I'd been working on a lot of other, things, including a design system for the city.

But you want to have something that is, it's memorable, that has some intellectual content.

And it's very simple.

And, you know, it didn't take long to begin to, you know, look around and understand that, the city's history, much of it, had to do with flour mills that were, growing up along, the Erie Canal at the time.

Powered by grist mills and wheels.

And also in its current day, the city was represented, or known as being a flower city because of the lilacs by like festival.

And so as I started to look at those two images, both a lilac flower as well as the wheel of the grist mill, they kind of came together.

And in fact, at one point I told this story.

I can remember overlapping them.

And they seemed to evolve as a, a graphic that embody both of those elements.

And that became, the impetus for the mark.

And I think it's one of those things where, again, like, looking at and seeing pieces of and being like, oh, this makes sense.

Like, this is like something that, on, on actual physical paper, like when you put it together, I was like, oh, this makes sense and creates such a unique, identifiable shape.

Eric, I want to take a minute and talk about, like, with, like, the fact that you've now and I'm going kind of out of chronological order of history here, but you've spent so much time now dealing with this shape in terms of art projects and community aspects of it.

And you have a lot of experience with other art and design, like how has it been for you working with it in terms of like, as a, as an icon in, as a shape.

Right.

So, you know, and some of this is covered in the documentary, but, you know, my first interaction is with the logo is through skating through the city and seeing it on buildings.

I'm also not from Rochester.

And in the 90s you were skating downtown, and we're seeing it on the police cars were running away from, things like that.

And, you know, at the time I was very early, you know, in design, learning, learning, learning all the things.

And, you know, for us, you know, and 90s, I was working with a look at how Proko is.

It was about remix culture.

And, you know, turning to, you know, having a little bit of that early city pride, your reference that.

So one of my first iterations is actually working with it, unauthorized, a little better way to phrase it, an homage.

You know, it's create a shop board that, that, you know, by that point, you know, especially along the Thruway, the corridor, you know, that icon was associated with Rochester and, through, through through the people and, you know, it just made sense to us to like.

All right, we're going to do a tribute board.

And, you know, I think we got a cease and desist within about a week.

Which is far better than New York State ever did.

When we did, did the same with their logo.

But then over time, you know, it's I didn't use it for a long time.

You know, a little bit of, Oh, I got to lay low.

But, you know, as I got more involved, the cycled back around in my life evolved.

And then I became more involved with the arts world in Rochester.

You know, by that point, my relationship with Rochester had changed, you know, and I viewed what I was doing in Rochester very differently and viewed, you know, my interactions with it and the logo you know, had come to just it represented all of that life lived and all the friends met and all the found family along the way.

And so for me, when I was starting to do fun, you know, fundraising, you know, you know, for, for my gallery and stuff, I was integrating that as an art form.

So deconstructing skateboards.

And at that point, I'm now analyzing the forms, you know, the wedges, of the flower and cutting them over and over again out of skateboards.

And you know, really learning the intricacies of every single curved line and, and form of that.

And then again, as my own like to, at that point, 20 plus years of design history, it just took on a new appreciation of it from the design and professional side and then, you know, especially as we ramp up to to now with the celebration of the mark, you know, it is inextricably tied.

From from Rochester.

You know, it it is a it's a secret symbol.

It's a secret society.

You know, I wear the mark.

You know, everyone's got, you know, tattoos, the city logo on their body.

And it's a you see it like how Rochester and and, you know, if if the city had tried to do that, it would not never have worked.

But because there was, you know, at first that that little bit of rebellion against like, oh, we're going to do it whether you want us to or not, and then a little bit of like a tacit like, all right, you know, we're going to see where it goes and watch what happens.

It was allowed to organically evolve so that it just means so much more to the residents of Rochester, or folks who've left Rochester, than just this city.

Mark.

And it's you don't you know, it is such a unique story.

You know, there's people who will, you know, tattoo brand marks on them or whatever, you know, from the clothing brands.

They like things like that, but, you know, like that.

City pride is a very different thing.

And it's like the, the stories that are all tied to that.

We, we actually have gotten calls from other municipalities, since I've been here, I've received calls from I can think of one small city in California asking, how did we do that?

And how did we make the mark, so popular?

And the answer was, I'm not sure it was before my time.

It's I think it's the only city that we can find that's got a mark that's 50 years old.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's it's so unique.

And I think for, like, all the reasons that you were just talking about Eric as well, you know, it's, it means something different to everybody and everybody's using it in a different way.

It's it's so adaptable.

And yeah, it is it is a unique model.

I mean, I think that's one of the most fascinating parts of the story is that it was born in under a corporate model of branding, where you don't let people use it.

People aren't supposed to touch it.

And I know, I know, Barbara can talk about this too.

And yeah, and somewhere along the way, you know, people people just started using it, and.

They were going to use it.

Yeah, they were going to use it.

They were using it.

Yeah.

So what we did in it was before my time and again, I in the documentary, Nate, interviewed me and captured the moment or I said, you know, thank goodness we had people with some foresight, who came, who originally created it and then saw the popularity of it.

And recognized the value in the city and the residents of our of the greater Rochester area embracing it and the pride that we have in it to give the policy some flex there.

I've, I worked for nearly 40 years in the advertising and marketing business.

I have never experienced a mark like this where you allow people to use it.

There are certain uses you can't do, but there are a lot of uses that you can do and you can leverage it for commercial and noncommercial purposes, which is just not not typical for any other brand.

Which I think is why it's so specifically, again, not just unique, but is also a case of something that you, again, hope for in any sort of an artistic pursuit, whether it's again, more, you know, technical, more design based or more artistic.

Is that literally the fact that people are tattooing it, people want to use it, but also the fact that the city has managed to find a balance of being like, let's protect like the identity of the city, but let's encourage people to still be able to celebrate it, to celebrate it.

Exactly.

Of like multiple avenues.

I want to go from here, but I'm gonna take a second because we're talking about, like, the history of it.

And Nate be like, one of the things that I was so struck by in the documentary is how much archival footage you have, how much archival material.

Yeah.

What was it like trying to amass that wide, like, swath of stuff?

Oh, man.

It was an epic adventure.

It was a journey.

We have, some space over at the library, which is a lot of, photo lab archival materials, slides, digital or not digital.

It's everything pre-digital, basically.

So I would explore over there.

I would take an hour out of my day because I, you know, for years I was also I'm still a digital media specialist and responsible for photography and and content creation.

So I got my daily job stuff, but I'd take an hour and I'd go over to the, the photo vault, and I'd explore, and I'd find Lee.

Lee Greene's, personal portfolio, and I would just get so excited about it.

I pull out boxes, of beta tapes, gigantic tapes, that we had digitized.

I pulled out my old camcorder and digitized hi8 tapes from the 90s.

You know, you said you've got all these eras of analog media and you got to figure out how to get them digitized, but it was great.

We have, we have a lot of slides digitized.

We've got, we worked with Visual Studies Workshop and RIT archive, the Carey Collection.

We've got a lot of people to thank for where we are right now as a team.

Effort.

Lee, I have a question.

Based on the fact that we're talking about, like, archival materials and how things were made.

But I feel like nowadays we tend to talk about, like, either slides or paper products or even hand-drawn logos as something that adds texture to things.

Whereas when you were originally working on this and working for the city as a graphic designer, so much of the design that you worked on at the time is so beautifully clean and elegant.

Can you talk about, was there a style that you just kind of, like, found at the time, something that you wanted to work in, or is that naturally what was required because of being a municipality?

I don't know that it was as much a municipality as it was just the basic fundamentals of good design.

I mean, you know, the best of design is clean and simple and straightforward and not embellished.

When you start to over embellish things, you end up with, you know, an amalgam of the not so good material.

So that was really the foundation for much of the design work, and it was important to create a, sort of a common if you will, visual voice for the city.

I mean, at the time, that was something that, you know, 50 years ago, corporations were were pretty good at.

Right?

They got it.

Government organizations and cities, not so much.

It wasn't really on their radar.

And that itself made it a wonderful opportunity.

To be able to have that that clean state and that degree of autonomy.

And, and and that worked out really well.

And something else I want to ask you about is there's, this, I think there's some footage and some photos of you presenting to people, at the time of you designing it.

I think it was like a slide projector, and you're kind of trying to sell people on the idea of why this is the new logo that Rochester should be looking at to represent the city.

Do you remember anything about, like, what you tried to say or how you tried to convince them or was it just about clean design at the time?

Well, you know, it's ironic because, a lot of what I was doing then, is not unlike what I did in my initial years at IBM.

If if you if you gather up all the visual representations of a brand or in that case, at that time of the city, and you put them together, and you showcase them either on a wall or in slides and images, it becomes pretty clear very quickly that the expression, the visual expression is very fragmented.

And and it's not doing the hard work that it could be doing on behalf of the city.

So I'm sure that, you know, I don't I don't have that presentation anymore.

It was probably, 35 millimeter slide presentation, but I expect that, that was much of it.

It was all about showing up for an opportunity.

That you said you had.

Yeah, I, I do.

I've got that, the 35, slides if I ever.

Yeah.

Yeah, if you ever want to see it.

Okay.

My on my next trip up there.

Yep.

I love it in this case.

Like, I feel like if I were you, my office would just be filled with, like, ephemera.

At this point, like, of all of the, the pieces making this.

Oh, it is, it's awesome.

It's my own little city Mark Wonderland down there.

Seriously, it's come down sometime.

Anybody?

Yeah.

No, I've got, metalwork.

I've got, Apollo Magna, Apollo's, sea creature, and Sean Dunwoody, you know, all these artist artists that are doing stuff with it now, but then all a lot of, Lee's work, too, from the time.

Because, like you were saying, just beautiful work.

I mean, it's so simple and clean.

You know what you're looking at?

You're like, oh, this is the city.

I can tell because, you know, it's just because it's well designed.

And I think that's one of the coolest things that's come out of this project.

I'd like to take a little bit a little bit of credit for it, at least, that I think, the city's, you know, we're really paying attention again to brand standards and, what what the city of Rochester looks like, where it's placed and being consistent.

I think it's always a challenge with any brand is because of, was it the law of chaos?

I mean, it's just people start to want to add their own logo if they want their own thing.

And it's just a constant struggle to keep people focused.

I think I'm really proud at Rochester Smart.

Rochester is above ahead of the curve on so many things.

But we are doing that every, every day.

The city.

I think especially if you also look at, I don't know how many years ago it was because time I don't know, but like, there was a point where every, like, major brand was redesigning every logo into just like a generic, like, Helvetica sans serif thing, like there was that whole, like, when the gap redid it and everyone was like, what are you doing?

Yeah.

Like, but I think that there is that tendency where people want to put their own, like stamp on it.

People want to make changes.

People want it to be fresh and different.

But I think there's it's so important and it's also so unique that a mark as good as this one still looks just as good.

Yeah, right now as it did when when when it was originally designed.

People get used to things.

It's around them all the time so that they start to take.

I say take advantage or I just they start to forget that it is a powerful thing and that it does a lot of work already for you.

So and it's this has been true at every brand I've been in that you have to protect it.

You have to defend it.

And you know, and if you if you adjust it, you adjust it, you you enhance it just slightly because it needs to be close enough to a recognizable brand, but far enough way to make it interesting.

Honestly, this hasn't changed hardly at all I think millimeters if, if and when we use the mathematically precise version of the mark versus the, the hand-drawn version of the mark.

Yeah.

And, and pardon.

This is not going to come out terribly eloquent.

But like there is a, a pillar sign on, by the, by the waterfront.

And the mark is wrapping around it and it's in three dimensions.

And I was like, oh, what a smart use of that.

Like how interesting like to use it in that way.

But I also think that's a case of it takes people who like originally were like very talented and made this and then are continuing to be talented in the way that they're continuing to use it and find new ways to keep it fresh and interesting.

That example you're giving is actually a city use.

And again, I've worked at places where you could be taken to brand jail for doing something like wrapping your logo around something on purpose.

Yeah.

Or any, any of the colors that you see it in?

Yeah.

It's just usually not allowed.

Yeah, absolutely.

I, I'm curious, can I ask a question here?

Lee, when when you guys came up, did you notice that any of those, modern applications, did you get a chance to walk around?

Oh he's muted.

I think you're muted.

Oh I think we lost Lee's audio.

So we'll come back to that.

Great.

While while while we're unmuting Lee was going to take a really quick short break.

When we come back we will have more with our guests talking about, the city.

Mark will be right back here on connections.

I'm Megan Mack, coming up in our second our It's connections summer sessions, where we bring back popular episodes all tied to a theme.

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In this special rebroadcast, we understand the facts about solar energy and debunk the myths.

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This is connections.

I'm Matt Tetrick sitting in for Evan Dawson.

We are talking about a city Mark, a Rochester icon, a new documentary about the logo of the Flower City.

And I am, beyond thrilled to be talking here, today with Lee green, the City of Rochester's first graphic designer and city mark originator.

Nate Miller, the city of Rochester digital media specialist and filmmaker behind the documentary.

Barbara Pierce, the City of Rochester communications director.

And Eric Leeman, artist, designer and curator of gallery, 1975.

Nate, you had a question for Lee?

Yeah, Lee, I was I was just curious when you came up for for the premiere what you it was such an honor to have you here.

And we're really grateful that you took the time and got up here.

And it was a, a bit of a struggle, but I was curious if you had time to walk around and see any of the modern, mark applications.

The official city.

Mark applications that we were, mentioning the wraparound pillars and, sandblasted down to the floor.

I didn't see some of the, things that you've described there, but we did have a chance to walk around and go into a number of, stores and restaurants, and, and I saw quite a few representations of the mark on plaques and, and other materials and, it allowed for engaging in a conversation with some of the shop owners or restaurant owners.

And it was not only very gratifying, but it was also very obvious that they took a great deal of pride in, in being able to showcase that mark, in, in their businesses.

I, I'm so intrigued by, like, in the process of the city itself choosing when and where to use the logo is the communications bureau involved in like when the parks department wants to use it and stuff?

Do you guys go through like a brand approval process for official use of it around?

There are a lot of standard uses that departments.

There's a lot of departments in the city, and it would be overwhelming to try to manage all of the places.

But there are official documents.

There are official uses.

There are places we want people to use it in a consistent way.

Signage.

But when there are large scale things like wrapping the mark around, we are looped in and we're made aware of the plan.

Yeah, I think that it's that that balance of how big and how small and when to use it.

I think that is notable because, again, people want to use it.

People really want to put it on stuff.

But there's, there's, an amazing part of the doc also where, time the actor who on shop peppermint talks about, it being on the garbage cans on the like, totems and being like, oh, wow, this city is so proud of its logo that it is on all the garbage cans.

I actually met him again back in the 90s.

My brother pulled one off and had it hanging in his house, and when he left Rochester, he gave it to me and it is still just magnet it up onto my fridge.

You know, and it's it's it was falling off.

I want to put that we didn't go fully for.

But but but yeah.

And I think that's again that's where that, that odd relationship with it.

But that for a lot of us came from is just, it is on there.

It's, it's on just so many items and throughout that that are the cities.

Right.

And I think when you, when you look at what is the differentiation like what the city is making sure is and what is, you know, what what the residents know is official city versus either license or even unauthorized or whatever.

I think because of the standardization and, and brand guidelines, it's rare that you the, I think, feel that people get confused.

You know, you know, and it's an artistic license versus is official city.

There's just so much more to like the official city ones that are like, oh yeah.

That's legit.

Yeah, there is a balance.

And that's exactly the goal is to ensure there's no confusion.

Yeah, I mean that's that's the key because it is still on our uniforms.

And if somebody comes to your house and says that I'm with the city, you need to believe.

Yeah, that they're from the city and you can't have people walking around with things that look like uniforms.

It's one example of something we actually just talked about today, and we get requests for things that look too close to that, or it's in a business logo, right?

People will get confused and think that perhaps the city's behind that organization when we're not.

So that's the key.

And that's the one thing that we're always watching for is clarity.

Yeah.

And I think even the, you know, the, the if we're gonna talk about like the application process, it is simple.

It's a website and it's 100 bucks and it is, very approachable.

You know, even even I was looking at the current one after you.

Talked about the process, the process.

To licensing the logo and, and, you know, the restrictions really are minimal.

You know, as far as it's very clearly spelled out and they make sense and you don't feel like as a creative you don't feel stifled.

You know, it's like, oh, cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm able to push put up my idea.

And I think my first one was approved in less than 12 hours on a Friday night.

Like, I put it on a Friday night after.

Work, 24 seven.

Yeah, sometimes that on purpose.

And I put it in, I put it and this is many years ago I was like 2016 or something.

I put it in right, right after they first started the licensing.

I put it in, for a reasons, that night and when I woke up, I got the approval.

I like 8:00 on a Saturday, and it blew my mind.

And I think that that's again, like speaking to like, again, the, the the work that the team is doing, like at the city in terms of trying to, like, find the encouraging the community but also being able to celebrate our community because that's ultimately I feel like on a I don't say loftier, but like is literally like the role of the government.

It's literally here to support the people and living their best lives in the community.

The website URL for the information about this is City of rochester.gov smart city Mark 50.

And again, not trying to sound too complimentary, but like it's so straightforward because the information is there on how to license it.

The information about screenings of this documentary are there.

But also there's been so much else in this celebration that has been happening and is coming up.

You guys just literally had an entire festival about it.

Like we did Flower Fest.

So Flower Fest was supposed to be one time.

One shot.

We had a we had a drone show.

We had a full day with vendors selling their, city mark, apparel and jewelry and other things.

And we had, music and food trucks, and it was supposed to be a one time deal.

And now, apparently we have to do this every year.

Which is kind of your own success.

Yeah.

And we had a great event down in the High Falls district.

We'll we'll do it again next year.

So keep an eye out for that.

But, you know, all of this started this year, Nate and I, again, from the beginning to 4 or 5 years ago now began planning for the documentary.

But then how could we make it something that could reach everyone in our community?

So the documentary itself, we had a premiere.

We've, the rock cinema had several free showings.

The little is coming up and having several free showings.

We'll have library free showings and all of those available showings are at, that website and will also WXXI is planning to show it, on their air because I was a production partner with the city and helping us put the movie together.

So we're excited, for them to show it on their air this fall.

In September, I think is the plan.

So, and then we've also got a book coming out.

It's a coffee table book which will be available through the friends of the Public Library, and that'll be at the end of July.

So you can watch for that.

We'll have art going up.

We've got a youth group that's painting, large mural at MLK Park that that'll be in July and August.

We've got a huge custom piece of Capitol art, a sculpture going on the Sister Cities Bridge this summer.

That's going to be really neat to see.

We'll catch a lot of, a lot of content around how that thing goes up, because that's going to be cool.

It's outside.

You remember how told us that.

It's it's all.

But let's just say it's tall, but.

It's an outdoor sculpture.

And the middle of the Sister Cities Bridge.

It'll be of the park.

We did an RFP with our friends of the Department of Environmental Services two years ago.

Now?

Two years ago.

Yeah.

And so that'll be going on.

That's slated for this fall again, probably in October.

It by October it'll be going up and be finished, this fall.

So this really is a year long.

Well, yeah, we started in May.

We're going to see it through.

We'll have, official anniversary merchandise with our friends of the public market, and that will be coming up in July and August.

Six by six.

We were just talking about six by six.

They did a partnership with us.

There's a whole city mark, theme.

Whole wall full of city mark.

Art at street at.

Six by six through July 25th.

Yeah.

So go out and check that out.

It's amazing.

And what else did I forget about?

I think that's everything.

That's a lot.

That's I. Think that's our.

I was just going to say I. Was like, on top of our day job done, all this other stuff.

It's a lot.

Yeah.

In terms of the doc screening, in that case, you, had some screenings, during Flower Fest.

In that case, did you get any sort of feedback from the community on getting the first chance to see it?

People were so excited.

It was awesome.

We did three screenings in a row, and, was at High Falls.

And the waterworks building.

That waterworks building?

That's right.

And it was standing room only.

In fact, it was sitting room only.

You know, we had we pulled out all of the chairs that we could and then, we still didn't have room.

So people just sat down on the floor and it was awesome.

Yeah, it's very exciting.

We're trying not to take any.

And I say to Nate for him, I try not to take offense to the fact, but how many people say, wow, that was really good.

But I think, how did you not expect it to be phenomenal?

It is a great film.

It's a really fun story.

It's easy to watch.

It's only 70 minutes.

So, yeah, I think people are surprised when they hear we made a we made a film about a logo, you know, the main character is a two dimensional graphic illustration, but, but it works because there's so many people who are so passionate about it and using it in so many ways.

So I always said the film would be I would like it to be half origin story, and half modern engagement.

Well, then you've got 50 years in between.

So.

You know, a lot of context.

Yeah, it did my best.

But people, there's, there's a really good energy about it.

It feels so good.

Well, I just need to take a second here and to say thank you, Barbara.

And thank you to the mayor for letting for letting me do it.

Right.

You know, I mean, I think, like Lee got that flexibility in 1974 to 76.

They said, you know, he had a director who said, go ahead.

And, free reign and look what we got.

And, and I feel similar now in that I was giving quite a bit of creative freedom to, a lot of creative editorial control.

And I appreciate that.

And I think the film is really honest for it.

Yeah.

I again, I think that one of the things that's great about it, again, not to be like, wow, they made this in-house, but literally the fact that it feels not just so researched, but it feels so well made, so hand crafted, and also so honest in terms of its portrayal of like the challenges of the city and then what has, like, come from it and how the like, the logo has really been useful and engaging in that case.

Reiterating, if you would like to see, the documentary, there are three upcoming free screenings at the Little Theater.

The first one is this coming Sunday, July 5th, as well as screenings on July 8th and 13th.

You can go to the little.org for more details for the trailer, to reserve seats.

And then there are screenings at the Rochester Public Libraries in July, August and September, across various various branches.

And then movies with the downtown view screening at parcel five outdoors in September.

I think is again, just like what a great way of like celebrating like within the space.

I think that's so cool.

We're trying to well, we've scheduled the screenings this way to kind of force people to come together, because that's part of the objective of all of this effort, anyway, is to remind us that we're in Rochester.

We're all in this together, and to remind us of something we all agree on, which is the city of Mark and the love of it.

After we do these screenings will be, as I mentioned, on TV, will run it on their air, and then soon after that we'll have it online and we'll have it via city, city of Rochester websites and also our YouTube channel.

So if you can't get to Rochester to see it live and in person, then just wait a couple of months and it'll be available.

That's awesome.

You mentioned a coffee table book.

We've already talked about the extensive ness of the research that is involved in the actual doc itself.

What was involved in the book process in terms of trying to, like, differentiate it or compliment the doc?

Like, does it include some of the same stuff, different stuff?

It's it has to include some of the same stuff because Nate's, you know, Nate was the originator of the story in the documentary.

And so a lot of it's coming from that.

But I will say that the book goes into a little bit more visually.

You can linger over some of the pages.

It dives into the history a little bit more.

We work closely with our, city historian, on the book.

So a lot of the images, actually, you may have used some of them in the documentary as well, but there's additional images in the book and additional stories in the book.

But it is a coffee table book.

It's you can get into it any you open it and you can read the page and you're not out of order.

But it does go through history and it goes through where we were and the information around it.

But I think that it's.

A different experience and a. Completely different experience.

There was that was our plan, our hope.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Right.

And like Barb said, you know, it's kind of book where you can just open it up and, you know, you don't have to read it from from front to back.

Every page is going to give you, a little bit of history.

And I need to just do a shout out to all of the partners, internal and external, because the comms team, we had a lot of these activities going on, but each one of these requires other team members.

I mentioned Department of Environmental Services who helped us with the sculpture.

There's Department of, Recreation and Human Services who are helping us, and with the Rock paint division on the mural, the historian, our law department, you know, you mentioned the book.

And the first thing the flash to remind is getting the rights, speaking of rights to all of the images and making sure that if they weren't the city's imagery, that we made sure we went and got rights for all of the stuff in all of the places.

So it was really a four year plus labor of love.

All of these.

Yeah.

I can't wait to see the book.

Like again.

Yeah, the doc is great, but I literally I'm like, oh great, I want to deepen it.

I want to look for more information.

And those will be available at the public library.

And we're working with the friends of the Public Library.

That's awesome.

Leigh, I have a question for you about, so we talked a little bit about like leading up to the mark and influences on it, but I'm curious about like, your career and your design influences after the mark.

Is there, anything that, I can ask about in terms of like, what did you, like, go on to do or what did you move on with in terms of how did this influence what you did afterwards?

Well, as I mentioned, it, the approach to evaluating IBM's identity and expressions was very similar.

So, experience at the city of Rochester provided me with a wonderful experience and education to allow me to do that.

I went on to work at IBM for some 36 years.

When I left, I was, corporate vice president responsible for the IBM brand globally.

And all of the company's visual expressions.

And, so I had a wonderful career at IBM, and, and a couple of, memorable, experiences.

And I'll just share one with you very quickly.

At one point after I'd been with the company for about three years, they asked me if I wanted to move back east and get involved in a, a new business, a new product.

And, and I asked, I said, yeah, I'd be very interested in doing that because the East part of the country was the headquarters.

And I said, well, what is this new product?

And the manager I was working for at the time said, I'm really not exactly sure, but I think it's called the personal computer.

So off I went, on a, on the adventure of, supporting all the design associated with the introduction of IBM's personal computer and, and all that history, as well.

And, you know, we did a 100 year anniversary for IBM prior to my leaving and created a lot of very similar materials.

So the types of things that you're talking about, it went on for a year.

And, and I think the wonderful thing about it was it was less self-congratulatory, on IBM's part about what a great company we were.

And it was more about all the things that we had been able to do to help make positive changes in the world.

And so that was tremendously gratifying.

So that's those are some of the things I did after I left, the city of Rochester.

One I think that that's I mean, amazing, like, but like, it's a yeah.

To minimize that, the effect of that.

But to that's also a case of again where I know like everyone has a different sense of like scale and what they're looking for.

But I personally kind of love the fact that the city mark here in Rochester was almost like a test case, a like a test ground for you before moving on to like IBM.

Like, I think that that's super cool.

And that's what I kind of again, one of the things that I love about our community is that I feel like we have unbelievably talented people here who are doing world class work.

Sometimes we just have a little trouble, like getting that out further.

But I know the communications area.

Obviously you guys are working on that right now.

It's my number one objective.

When Mayor Evans gave me this opportunity to join his administration and I said yes, I didn't take me long to realize how much we, are our own worst enemies as far as appreciating what we have.

Sure.

I think that what's my biggest takeaway from this effort has been the young people in our community that, you get to a certain age, you get to a certain part of your career, you just don't go out to the bars anymore.

You don't engage with, oh, I'm not skateboarding.

I'm new to any the things I used to do.

I was very, very young.

But I'll tell you, the young people are really embracing our city.

They don't know what we used to be.

They don't care what we used to think we were going to be.

They are embracing what we are today.

And it's they're the ones tattooing the mark on their bodies.

They're the ones living here, moving downtown, making the neighborhood of play a very vibrant community.

And I think those of us who've been here a long time need to open up a little bit, get out a little bit more, and experience the city the way our young generations are experiencing it, because it is extremely positive.

And, I think this effort this year, like I said, there couldn't be a better time for us all to take a moment and take some pride in our city.

Eric, you guys, I say, I feel like again, you're not to keep using the word community, but you're so deep rooted in community aspects of it.

Like, do you feel like that is a case of where it's just kind of time ebbs and flows and different groups like for.

Well, yeah.

It's, you know, as, as I was talking, I just think back to like the, the 2008 to 2012, which was this really vibrant rebirth in the arts community in Rochester, which then has kept going.

But and a lot of it, a lot of it was fueled, you know, by folks who lived here.

But just as much there are a lot of us who weren't from here, and we didn't have that the baggage.

And we came here and we saw just the possibility.

And I remember back then talking a lot of times about like, our work is trying to take a mirror to be like, look how awesome Rochester is.

Like, we can do so much here.

That would mean nothing in a big city, but here it means something and it's received, you know, it's well received.

It's wanted.

You know, it creates new opportunities for other artists, you know, and just other everything.

And yeah, you know, it's, you know, much like, you know, obviously as an arts arts advocate, arts cheerleader, you know, it's I look to how how the arts, yeah.

Yeah.

Like the reminds the city how much potential there is.

And they said about the time where the city seemed to be taking a little more lax approach of, like, what?

What was going on and, and working with us secretly on the side without, you know, giving us a little bit of permission here and there.

And, but I think, yeah, it was that confluence of just the new energy.

We're like, yeah, it's cool.

Like I was, I was here as a student in the very heyday of, you know, IBM bussing, Kodak and those things.

I was working with some of those companies, you know, through various cool projects that died on the vine, you know, dying during those times.

I remember, you know, as we're bringing up the art stuff, you know, through all therapy and things like that, we're watching, you know, that's the same summer that Kodak, you know, hit, you know, announcing its bankruptcy and, you know, through all of that, it was like those of us who were just like, yeah, that's cool.

And it's great.

It sucks.

But you can still there's so much we can still do.

Like there's so much potential here.

And, and and for me, it's for me.

Yeah.

I often, you know, joke.

You know, I went to Art.

Got it.

You know left I came back to art for grad school and then I forgot to leave.

And I've been working arts.

Here is my full time job this whole time.

But I often say, like, you know, how, you know, as my friends were leaving, they were working at the big companies and they lost their job, so they had to leave.

And I was like, I don't have a call to leave yet.

I don't I'm supposed to be here for a reason and I don't know what yet.

And in the meantime, I'm doing all this stuff.

And it was I remember it was like years into I go, oh, yeah, this is why I'm supposed to be here.

It's because all the stuff I've been doing and I didn't even realize, like, what impact it was having and, you know, again, building into that city pride and wanting to give back, you know, going from just like little scrubs skating through to this downtown, getting yelled at to, you know, like we're going to I'm going to donate thousands of hours of my time to get art into this city and make it as awesome as possible.

And yeah, it's that organic, the organic nature of of all of it.

Yeah, I, I don't want to again like, no, I do, I do, I want to say that like in this case, like, I hope that, that you guys feel like, both from the work that you've done in the community, lead from the work you've done, the logo, and then the Barbara from the work that you've done at the City, both on this doc that I feel like continuing that sense of pride and legacy, I feel like is so important and has had such a positive impact.

And also, again, the doc is so good that, like, I hope that you feel a sense of like, oh, this is like a really cool thing.

I made.

I, I feel that right now.

Thank you.

I need to say thank you because, you've mentioned it a few times and I appreciate it.

Because I only really hear about it when, somebody comes up and says, thanks.

I'm kind of a nerd.

Like, I've never made a movie before.

I'm not a filmmaker, I don't care.

I, I have, I have made a film.

I literally had to build the profile for you on the letter box so I could, you know, where people could, like.

Yeah.

That's.

So I've been trying to go to all the screenings and meet people and, to shake people's hands because, what a great experience.

What a cool moment in time.

I'm glad we're all celebrating it together.

And and again, what a great celebration.

People should definitely go to, the city of rochester.gov/city.

Mark 50 to find out all the details on ways to continue to celebrate, the mark over the course of the year with screenings of the documentary City Marker, Rochester Icon.

And find out more details about all the other ways you can engage with the logo.

I want to thank, Lee green, Nate Miller, Barbara Pierce, and Eric Lehman, my guests, for being here today.

For this discussion.

We could have gone on another hour.

But thank you so much.

Thank you again to the connections team for all the hard work here at WXXI.

This is connections.

I meant to talk.

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