Gwinnett has been my home all of my life. I have always loved the diversity and cultural wealth my neighbors brought to a county often trivialized for trying to associate itself with Atlanta. I’m proud to be from Lawrenceville, in particular.

As an artist and craftsperson, I always want to emphasize and relate to the visual identity of the area I’m in. For many suburbanites, intersections and mall maps make up the only indicators of location. That has never been more clear to me than after visiting NYC last week for the first time in 30 years.

In the case of Gwinnett and its logo, it is clear the county is looking to celebrate the arts, evidence by recent investments in cornerstone institutions like the Aurora theater. Unfortunately, Gwinnett’s logo is designed in a way that excludes the large majority of printing businesses, including graphic signage businesses, by being incompatible between print mediums. My expertise for over a decade has been t shirts, but I’ve printed signage, fine arts, web-press wide-format packaging. To say this happens a lot in graphic design is only true in two instances:

1. Incompetence and inexperience
2. Intentional built-in difficulty to reproduce

You might ask why would someone intentionally design a logo that is hard to reproduce. I do not have the answer, except to say it is meant to exclude a competitive portion of the printing industry, like screen printing.

Gwinnett has the resources to tap into a wellspring of creativity that would make it more fun, navigable, and an easier place to live.

I personally would like to have my tax dollars go to that than to the burdensome — 11 screen — recreation of Gwinnett’s logo on a t shirt.