What snuffed out the launch of the new signs around Dunwoody? One Dunwoody council member is asking for an explanation.

Councilman Terry Nall inquired at Monday's council meeting for a "post-mortem" account of why Dunwoody's sign project ended almost as quickly as it began.

He said he had talked to a few people who were involved in a review of the signs before they were presented to the council and the public at large. The people he talked to didn't feel that their input was followed, Nall said.

Do you think the signs could have been changed to make them work? And how?

The city spent about $40,000 designing signs that received little support from the public in the brief period of time that they were under consideration.

Dunwoody officials sent out a newsletter asking for comments. Less than a week later, on July 17, the city pulled the plug on the project indefinitely.

The backlash against signs seems mostly based on their use of the city's branding effort. One of the variations is a blue and lime-green color pallete with what some have criticized as a corporate-looking font. 

An informal Dunwoody Patch poll and related comments put on display the negative reaction to the signs.

"The logo and these signs are terrible. They are very tacky. The signs should have a more traditional look with stone and more neutral colors," said one commentor.

Some residents that the city of Dunwoody heard from have said that the natural materials and a toned-down color pallete is exactly what they were calling for - to little effect.

However, Bob Mullen, the city's spokesman, has said that the input of the sounding board was taken into consideration.

Asked to provide an example of a change made after public review, Mullen pointed to the mock up of the Windwood Hollow Park sign.

While it still is in keeping with the branding effort, with a blue background and the large, lime-green asterisk, the footing of the sign has a natural stone element that was suggested by members of the city's sounding board, Mullen said.