The city of Philomath has a new look — and citizens will certainly notice in the coming weeks as a new logo and branding scheme begins to appear in various ways around town.
Philomath City Council members got their first look at the new design while meeting Monday night at City Hall.
The logo features a custom font and an image that represents Marys Peak with the sun setting in the distance along with forms that open up the imagination and could be interpreted as the Marys River, “Philomath winds,” ocean waves, fog rolling in, wetland fields or whatever else might come to mind for different individuals.
Assistant City Manager Chelsea Starner took the council through a short slideshow presentation to explain what the designers took into consideration and to illustrate different variations, color schemes and patterns. The design also features a stand-alone “P” for use as a monogram.
The timing of introducing a new logo and branding coincides with the city’s plans to unveil a redesigned website by the first of the year. It will be featured in a variety of ways — including letterhead layouts, nametags, email signatures, newsletters, signage, vehicle design, uniforms, promotional materials and on social media.
Said Starner, “I’m very happy that this council saw it as a priority and it’s going to look really great on our new website.”
Councilors Ruth Causey and Christopher McMorran were among those who had input on the design.
“It was really interesting … getting the right mix of colors together and optional color pallets was more challenging than you might expect and they’re very good and really fun,” Causey said.
McMorran said it was a very interesting process.
“The world will never know the other branches this could have taken because there were some very different designs that came up that we didn’t go with,” McMorran chuckled. “But I think at the end, this is the one that everyone felt comfortable with and was pretty excited about.”
McMorran said he was happy with how the logo came together to combine a nostalgic feel with a sleek, modern look.
“I know that was something we talked about a lot,” he said about the process. “There were some logos that felt very kind of modern and corporate, which didn’t feel like Philomath, and then there were some that felt like a very kind of old-timey, western town, which also didn’t really feel appropriate for what we wanted. So this felt like a good way to balance that.”
Starner told councilors that efforts with a website redesign continue.
“We had our design meeting with the website developer last week and they’re working on some of those mock-ups for us,” she said.
The new website will not only include a new look, Starner said, but feature improved functionality for online visitors and city staff who need to post content.
Starner said earlier this year that the city seal, which is an image of the Philomath College building with the Marys River and forest in the foreground and Marys Peak in the background with the year of incorporation, would not go away but would be used exclusively in an official capacity, such as on city documents.
Starner offered her thanks to the contracted designers and others who contributed to the effort, including Louise-Annette Burgess of Maxtivity, Christina Rehklau of Visit Corvallis and Patrick Rollens of the City of Corvallis.