Pittsfield Municipal Airport Gets New Logo
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A new logo is ready for takeoff at the Pittsfield Municipal Airport.
The Airport Commission last week approved a cleaner design that depicts a jet flying over a green mountainscape. It is a far cry from the former branding, which had more than 10 saturated colors.
"Our current logo has probably 13 colors in it, which is difficult to do anything with. It was formatted in a way that we really didn't have much control over how to use it," Airport Manager Daniel Shearer said.
"We were aiming for something that represented Pittsfield and Berkshire County."
It will be rolled out on new materials and signage as updates are made, he reported.
Commissioner Debra Miersma explained that the former logo was an artifact from the former century. She and Shearer worked with local graphic designer Adam Hitt to deliver a "bright and fresh" design that speaks to the current airport — not what it was in the 1970s or 1980s.
"New logos typically have a lot more clean, white space," she said.
"We took a look at logos from other airports that are smaller as well as larger so this was done with actually quite a lot of thought."
Commissioner Michael Mah was the lone vote in opposition, as he didn't feel the logo represented general aviation (GA) because it shows a jet.
"At the risk of getting booed, I look at this and it says to me, at least, 'We're very happy to see large corporate jets,' but I don't see anything where we're talking about a smaller GA plane coming in," he said.
Shearer explained that they avoided using a stereotypical airliner "but at the same time, if you go with the smallest aircraft, it's not representative of the airport as a whole as well so this was middle of the road."
Mah would have liked to see a GA aircraft shown alongside the jet, saying logos should express a whole company or operation.
"As soon as I looked at this I just said, 'The logo is saying that we're jet friendly,'" he added.
Miersma responded that the image had to be very clean and they wanted an image that represented aviation and flight.
"We saw a small jet was most representative," she said.
"A logo shouldn't try and represent every possible thing you could ever do. It needs to have an overarching message and one of those is inviting, peaceful, happy, nature, the beauty of the Berkshires. That's one of the reasons we like the blues and greens, a thought of the rolling Berkshire Mountains and the the blues and greens making you think trees and water."
They ruled out the color red, images of planes streaking into the stratosphere, and big jets in the design.
In all of the years that Jay Green has been on the commission, this was the first time he was seeing a tug between commercial operation and general aviation. It was not well received.
"I really don't like it because that hauls the mail, that pays the bills, and without paying the bills, we can't have a general aviation airport," he said, explaining that there does need to be a fine balance but at the end of the day, commercial operations pay for needed aspects of the airport.
"This is an economic development tool for the region and an economic development tool for the city of Pittsfield and at the same time that we have a legal obligation and an obligation to provide for general aviation, we have an obligation as well to ensure that we're marketing ourselves correctly so that people utilize this airport."
Shearer said the plane was chosen to avoid the typical airliner logo but pointed out that 98 percent of the airport's largest revenue category is paid by jets.
"This airport is a municipal airport and it serves the community as a community airport," Mah said.
"Now, because the taxpayer pays taxes to the city and this airport is funded by Pittsfield taxpayers, they are stakeholders in this and, yes, we make it possible for generating revenue from jet traffic and it should also be welcome and open towards a larger community."
He sees general aviation as the "coral reefs of the ocean ecosystem," as every pilot who flies commercial jets trained in a GA plane.
Chair Thomas Sakshaug feels that having a GA pane on the logo would make it seem that the airport is more limited.
"This shows our higher limit," he said.
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