San Luis Obispo Business
August, 1999

New Logo builds SLO Tourism Image

Visitors to San Luis Obispo will now be able to take a reminder of their visit home with them. The reminder comes in the form of a sporty new t-shirt emblazoned with San Luis Obispo, California across the chest.

The t-shirts, now on sale at the Chamber's Visitors Center, were made possible in large part due to Pierre Rademaker of Pierre Rademaker Design who created the new San Luis Obispo logo for the Chamber. The t-shirts are the first of several items which will feature the new logo and be sold exclusively at the Visitors Center.

"We are immensely grateful to Pierre for creating this beautiful new logo," commented Dave Garth, Chamber President/CEO. "It's only fitting that San Luis Obispo's new image be designed by an artist of his caliber."

The logo combines elements that define the unique character of San Luis Obispo including the Mission, grape vines and an old-world style lettering. Rademaker gathered input from members of the Chamber's Tourism Council while fine-tuning the design.

"The challenge in creating the logo was to integrate our community's rich Mission history with the turn-of-the-century mainstreet quality that's often associated with our downtown," explained Rademaker. "The grape vines not only pay homage to the importance of our lucrative wine industry but also have historical meaning since our Mission is known for producing the most wine of all the Missions in the early 1800's.

" The Visitors Center gets numerous requests each month for San Luis Obispo logo'd merchandise according to Anja Schlotman, Director of the Chamber's Visitors Center. "It's so great to now be able to fulfill their requests," commented Schlotman. "Especially when the merchandise is of such high quality."

An even greater benefit than being able to fulfill requests for merchandise is the added exposure the t-shirts will give San Luis Obispo.

"We'll now be able to penetrate markets around the world by advertising San Luis Obispo on these walking billboards," explained Garth. "Hopefully those who purchase the t-shirts will wear them when they're back home and, in turn, create talk and generate interest in San Luis Obispo."

The Chamber also hopes to produce caps and sweatshirts featuring the logo within the next year. Consumers interested in purchasing t-shirts will have their choice of four colors: khaki, cardinal red, pine green, and denim blue. Shirts will sell for $14.95 each and also be available for purchase online at the Chamber's visitslo.com website.

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