How does a county party get a logo? Every county party is responsible for creating and maintaining their own logo, brand, and media. Our logo has long been the kicking donkey over the outline of Polk County, and it has served us well to establish who we are and what we represent. How did we come up with this?
The use of a kicking donkey to represent the Democratic Party dates back to 1870, when it first appeared in a political cartoon in Harper’s Weekly.
The DNC (Democratic National Committee) created and used the kicking donkey that we had in our logo. They let Democratic Parties use it for free, as many of us do not have a free resident graphic designer on hand. A volunteer had created the logo years ago with the use of this kicking donkey from the DNC.
After 2020, when Kelie McWilliams first started coming to the meetings, we quickly found out that she is a talented graphic designer, and had a willingness to help us with our design needs. The first thing she worked on was our existing logo – which she redid to have sharper lines, edges and the correct colors. We were thrilled with the result!
But Kelie saw an opportunity to help us update even more… As we started doing more in the community, we wanted to update our logo to be more modern, and appeal to everyone from the younger Democrats that we want to recruit to help to the seasoned Democrats that have been volunteering for many years. The DNC, who had created the kicking donkey, had actually moved away from using it themselves, for a more modern logo. After all, the donkey has been around for over 150 years!
Kelie went to work on creating an updated logo for our brand as we are in 2024, and moving forward. We wanted a fresh feel, and we think we have it!
Introducing the new Polk County Democrats logo!
So, how did we come up with it?
The blue is for democracy and the green is for the environment and climate in Oregon.
We have an updated donkey in the D for fun! (Isn’t he cute?!). Plus, the State of Oregon with a small star to show where we are. Did you know there are 20 Polk Counties out there across the US! No one can get us confused with Iowa or Florida now!
We are so excited about what we are going to accomplish going forward. When you see this logo, know that it represents not only the Polk County Democrats – but you!
A special thanks to Kelie for her talent and making this logo come to life.
