Heroes "R" Us

Notice anything different between the old and the new logos?

Old Logo	New Logo

The "R" is different in the new logo. The "R" in the old "Richardson Real Heroes" logo is the "R" from the City of Richardson's own logo. The "R" in the new "Richardson Real Heroes" logo is some other font (Brush Script?), vaguely similar but different.

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That brings us to the most interesting question. Why did "Richardson Real Heroes" change their logo? Could it be that someone at city hall didn't like "Richardson Real Heroes" infringing the city's copyright? Thereby misleading people into thinking that "Richardson Real Heroes" was somehow an official program of the City of Richardson? Which it decidedly isn't.

"Richardson Real Heroes" is a creation of the Richardson Coalition, a Political Action Committee formed and operated to get the preferred candidates of the people behind the PAC elected to the Richardson City Council (and more recently elected to partisan political offices outside the city as well). When it was created in 2010, the "Richardson Real Heroes" award smacked of an email harvesting scheme. Since then, the PAC has created the appearance of independence for the program, but the PAC is still the sponsor. There's still enough of a link between the "Richardson Real Heroes" program and raw politics that it wouldn't be surprising if someone at city hall told the PAC that they can't use the city's copyrighted "R" logo in the "Richardson Real Heroes" logo.

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By the way, I cheer the selfless work of the people honored by "Richardson Real Heroes." I just wish the award wasn't created and run in the service of politics.