Release Date: December 6,2025
City of Akron Unveils New City Logo
Akron, Ohio, Dec. 6, 2025 — Today, at the City of Akron’s Bicentennial Closing Ceremony, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik unveiled the city’s new logo. The logo was designed by Akron firm Pritt Entertainment Group after months of community engagement and input. The new image will replace the former “Rubberworker” logo as the symbol for the City of Akron and it will be used in addition to the City’s All-America Seal as the official insignia of Akron.
“This year, as we celebrated our Bicentennial and the city’s most recent All-America City win, the subcommittee has been hard at work engaging our residents on what they wanted to see from the city’s next symbol,” said Mayor Malik. “Every element of this design is a direct result of the feedback received throughout this process, and we’re excited to give the city a logo they can be proud of. So many respondents expressed during the engagement that Akron is home for them and that they are proud of where they come from. My hope is that this new logo can be a rallying point for our community.”
Subcommittee
In January 2025, Akron and the Akron Bicentennial Committee formed a subcommittee to help lead the engagement process for the new logo.
The members of the committee were:
· Dara Harper, Owner & Creative Director, Art Only Boutique
· Gregg Mervis, President & CEO, Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau
· Jessica Travis, Member of Akron Public Art Commission and Founder of Inspiring Canvases and Assuage HER
· Katelyn Martin, Student at the University of Akron Myers School of Art
· Mark Greer, Executive Director, Akron 200 Inc.
· Megan Delong, Member of Akron Public Art Commission and Assistant Director - University of Akron's EX[L] Center for Community Engaged Learning
· Nicole Mullet, Executive Director, ArtsNow
· Stephanie Marsh, Director of Communications, City of Akron
· Summer Hall, Cultural Engagement Coordinator, City of Akron
· Tyron Hoisten, Founder, Video 306
Additionally, Hsa Win, Lead Community Health Worker, Asian Services in Action (ASIA) assisted the subcommittee for several months of engagement and feedback but had to step down due to time commitments.
Design Team
In April 2025, the subcommittee issued a request for proposals for designers or firms who could do the design work. The subcommittee held information sessions with the Akron Black Artists Guild, ArtsNow, Summit Artspace, and the Akron Public Art Commission to ensure that Akron artists were aware of the opportunity and had a chance to submit a proposal.
In total, 21 proposals were submitted. Six of those proposals were from Akron designers or companies, 9 were from neighboring Northeast Ohio communities, and 6 were from out of state. Ultimately, the subcommittee selected Pritt Entertainment Group (PEG) as the design firm. PEG was founded in 2008 by brothers Ryan and Jeffrey Pritt. Since its founding, Pritt has been headquartered in Akron, Ohio and since 2013 they have been located in downtown Akron. Learn more about Pritt here.
Engagement
The subcommittee issued a community-wide survey beginning in April to gather feedback from residents about the future of the logo. In total, 5,735 data points were gathered from over 2,000 respondents regarding the logo. The survey was shared via social media, emails, newsletters, and via QR codes in person at a variety of events and in every community center in the city. For an analysis of the survey results click here. The subcommittee also shared flyers in the community centers during camp weeks this summer to allow Akron’s youth to try their hand at logo design. View some of the designs here.
In addition to the survey and the information sessions with local artists, the subcommittee also hosted several stakeholder engagement sessions with individuals the subcommittee identified for additional input gathering. These sessions were made up of a wide range of Akron residents including artists, business owners, high school students, seniors, non-profit leaders, City employees, and more. In total, over 40 individuals were brought together for these small group engagement sessions. For results of that engagement click here.
The subcommittee analyzed all of the input received and shared this feedback with the design team. The Pritt team then used this information to start creating different options for the city’s next logo. As the subcommittee and the design team worked together, they narrowed down the concepts to the top four. In October, the city shared these concepts with the public to allow them an opportunity to weigh in. Hundreds of comments and responses were recorded. Concept 3 was the clear favorite based on the community’s input. More than double the number of respondents expressed their preference for concept 3 than any of the other designs. Concept 4 received the second-highest number of positive reactions. The subcommittee and the design team continued to work through community input and design choices to refine the logo further, opting to go for a circular shape, adding in different font and color options, and combining certain elements of both concepts.
After months of engaging with residents, gathering feedback, conceptualizing designs, tweaking concepts, and refining options, the subcommittee and design team finalized the new City of Akron logo presented earlier today.
The city allocated $50,000 in the 2025 budget towards the design of the logo and an updated branding guide. That cost covered the time and efforts of the Pritt team over many months and rounds of revisions, incorporating new feedback as it was received. In the coming weeks, the city will release a new branding guide. The logo will replace all digital uses for the former Rubberworker logo and will be instituted over time on physical collateral through attrition. Additional funding will not be required for those efforts.
Logo Features
Text, Tilt, and Colors
The logo features “The City of Akron Established 1825” boldly across the top of the image with a mix of cursive script and print. The wordmark has a slight tilt signifying the city’s namesake. Akron comes from the Greek, akros, meaning “high point “or “summit.” The upwards tilt also signifies that Akron is a community on the rise. The image features a dark blue, lighter blue, and forest green. These colors are a direct result of community input which overwhelmingly selected blue as the primary color of the logo and also highlighted the city’s green spaces as being an important part of the next symbol of the city.
Blimp
Below the wordmark, an iconic Akron blimp can be seen. The blimp pays homage to Akron’s past as the “Rubber Capital of the World” with a clear nod to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company which has been headquartered in Akron since 1898. Nearly 100 years ago, the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation built the 1,175-foot-long Akron Airdock, making Akron a center for development and construction of airships. Today, the Goodyear Blimp is still a common feature in Akron’s skies. As the city celebrated its Bicentennial this summer, Goodyear joined in the celebration and flew three blimps over the city making for a truly iconic sight. While the blimp is certainly honoring Akron’s past, it also represents the present and future of the city. Today, LTA Research operates out of the Airdock and continues to develop airship technology right here in the City of Akron.
Both the Goodyear Blimp and LTA Research’s airships use polymer materials in their construction. Akron has been a center for polymer research, education, and innovation for over 100 years. The world's first class in rubber chemistry was conducted by Dr. Charles Knight at Buchtel College in 1908. That legacy is continuing today through the work of the area’s Polymer Cluster. Polymers and airships/blimps are all core to the city’s identity making the blimp an important addition to the logo.
Trees and Skyline
Below the blimp, the logo features two buckeye trees as well as the city’s downtown skyline. Throughout the engagement, common themes emerged as being important to residents including parks and the city’s downtown/economic opportunity. These are two of the major draws noted throughout the engagement. Akron has 162 city-owned parks, is home to many Summit Metro Parks, and has easy access to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The CVNP is regularly in the top 10 most visited national parks and is uniquely positioned between two major urban cities: Akron and Cleveland. Both residents and outsiders alike shared their love of Akron’s parks and green spaces throughout the engagement period. The buckeye tree is a symbol of Akron’s green spaces and love of nature and is also the state tree of Ohio creating an even deeper connection with this image.
In addition, survey respondents and other commenters expressed the importance of Lock 3 and the city’s downtown corridor to the overall image of the city. One student who submitted a drawing for Akron’s next logo simply drew the winding paths and stage of the newly redesigned Lock 3 Park. Akron’s downtown represents not only businesses but redevelopment, innovation, investment, and a focus on reinvention.
Waterway and Heron
Finally, below the trees and buildings, the image includes a waterway and a blue heron standing on the bank. Akron’s waterways have been a significant part of Akron’s history. Well before the canals were used for the lock system to aid in regional trade and commerce, native inhabitants of the land were traveling the waterways by canoe. As Eric Olson writes in Akron at 200 A Bicentennial History, “[…] before the canal were the Seneca, Cayuga, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee, Ottawa, and Ojibwe Nations who called (and many still call) this land home.”
As time marched on and new inhabitants came to Akron, they recognized the benefit of Akron’s waterways for the creation of locks to move vessels from the high point of Akron to our lower neighbors to the north, Cleveland. Over the course of decades of manufacturing, the waterways began to get polluted leading to the infamous river on fire. As Akron has invested in completely overhauling its combined sewer overflow system over the past 15+ years, it has greatly improved the quality of the Cuyahoga River and other waterways. Due to that investment, certain species of fish and birds have returned to the river including the blue heron. The blue heron became a symbol of the power of change and environmental stewardship due to this transformation. It’s now a common sight on the banks of Akron’s rivers.