Last issue The Jasper Local had a bit of a field day commenting on the look of Jasper’s new entrance signs. The comments and emojis poured in on social media; everyone had a good chuckle. But our editorial was missing some context. This edition, we report on how the signs came to be in the first place.

Christine Nadon knows—all too well, perhaps—Jasper’s new entrance signs aren’t exactly a hit among residents.

“We’re paying attention,” the Municipality of Jasper’s Manager of Legislative Services says. “They’re clearly contentious.”

This newspaper and other commenters were quick to criticize the generic nature of the new signage, but Nadon, who was part of the committee that helped bring the signs to light, said she stands behind the public process.

“We didn’t draw this up on the side our our desks,” she said.

On the contrary, the signs were part of the MOJ’s wayfinding and signage guidelines project, an initiative that had been on the books, by way of the capital budget, since 2010. 

In 2015, the MOJ developed a RFP to build a spec book for the town to be able to implement wayfinding signage. Experience Design Group, from Vancouver, won the bid. Their final report (available on the MOJ website) was approved by the council of the day. 

At that time, Tourism Jasper had just launched a new brand (Venture Beyond). Some commenters were miffed why the municipality wouldn’t attach itself to that new identity, but Nadon said that the town was looking at investing in community wayfinding that would “remain in place for much longer than a tourism brand is likely to last.”

However, the Wayfinding and Signage Guidelines project did end up taking on the primary and secondary brand colours developed by Tourism Jasper’s brand consultant.

The organizations which were represented on the focus group that worked directly with consultants included MOJ councillors, MOJ staff, Parks Canada, Friends of JNP and the Jasper Museum and when the final design and guidelines document again went to (the current) council, it was again approved. This would have been the opportunity for the public to share questions or concerns, Nadon said.

“We didn’t hear anything,” Nadon said. “There was some media coverage at the time.”

Last year, following the approval of the wayfinding document, MOJ’s current Director of Operations commissioned the new entrance signs as per the document’s specifications. The price tag was $50,000 per sign.

In the wake of the firestorm of criticism, Nadon said it’s understandable to have negative feedback on public signage, but it’s also the nature of public process.

“For the expected outcome and the process we went through, these signs are good,” she said. “If we were to go to a large engagement process again I think we’d land on something similar.”

Bob Covey// thejasperlocal@gmail.com