The city of Las Vegas’s new logo, replete with scrawling pink text and retro-style stars reminiscent of the old Stardust hotel sign, is headed to the boneyard.

City Manager Scott Adams sent an email to city staff on Tuesday informing them that the city would be axing the new logo, which the government started the process of designing more than 18 months ago, and returning to the traditional city seal. Several members of the City Council expressed concern about the logo at a May meeting, worrying about whether it was serious enough and too confusing to use the logo in some places while continuing to use the seal in others.

“After talking with the council members, our plan is to go back to using the city seal as the main emblem. This will replace the city logo,” Adams said in the email. “Having both a seal and logo has created some confusion and a mixed message about our image. This can be addressed through a single, consistent symbol as our brand, and carries a more serious message that is important in certain functions of the city such as our enforcement and regulatory operations.”

Adams, who took over as city manager in July, told staff that the city would transition out of using the new logo the same way it had transitioned into it — when old items need replacing, whether government vehicles, letterheads, business cards or shirts, those items will instead be branded with the seal where they used to be branded with the new logo. The idea then, as it is now, is to save the city money by only rebranding as items need replacing.

The developing and implementing the logo cost the city roughly $20,000 — $10,000 to develop the logo, $2,000 to trademark it, somewhere between $5,000 to $8,000 for the costs of a citywide survey that included a portion about the logo and another $1,500 setting up an online store to sell merchandise with the logo. Spokesman David Riggleman said the city has already recouped at least the cost of setting up the online store and will continue to sell merchandise, such as shirts, hats and water bottles, with the logo to eventually cover the whole $20,000.

Though not a priority issue since starting the job, Adams said that he has had conversations with council members, talked with city staff and looked at the logo from his own personal perspective, given his background in economic development. He gave an example of a recent economic development trip to China in which two city officials handed two city business cards, one with the logo and one with the seal, to a businessman there.

“He just simply asked the question, ‘Are there two cities of Las Vegas?’” Adams said. “When we’re trying to project a unified image of the city, that doesn’t work. So I made the decision that we’re going to go to a single symbol as a brand and identity for the city.”

Asked whether Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s dislike for the logo was a driving force behind the switch back to the seal, Adams said that was “fair,” but added that most of the council members felt the same way through his discussions with them. He declined to specify what concerns the mayor and council members specifically brought up to him.

“You could see some of that in the meeting back in May,” Adams said. “It just wasn’t as clear, but as I’ve had discussions with the council and other team members, there was a pretty strong consensus to go exclusively to the seal.”

Adams noted that there was some concern that the logo wasn’t as serious for use by, say, public safety employees. He also said that the new logo was similar to other logos used by agencies in Las Vegas, pointing to the red scrawl of the Vegas PBS logo and the “Las Vegas” logo used by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which sometimes is used in pink.

“There was a concern that if somebody drove up in a car or had a badge with the logo, someone might confuse that with other agencies and organizations in the region and might not take it as seriously,” Adams said. “If a code enforcement officer walks up and presents a badge with the city seal, you know that’s the city of Las Vegas.”

Above all, switching back to the seal will help the city have a unified identify as it pursues economic development opportunities and brands itself to the world, Adams said.

“One of the things I support is something David’s been pushing in our communications office, having a unified brand for the city, not all these different departments having different logos, unique variants on a logo. A single use across the organization,” Adams said. “That is very important from an economic development standpoint.”