Wheatland County developing new corporate logo, identity

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County is looking to breathe new life into its corporate identity with the introduction of a new logo and corporate badge.

The change comes as part of a strategy the county hopes will promote investment attraction, corporate team development and increased service standards within the municipality. The new logo is the latest highlight of the project.

Reeve Amber Link said Wheatland County has been observing the challenges being experienced by the oil and gas industry and concluded it was time to diversify the local tax base.

“Part of that was a discussion around improving our signage so that people were very aware when they were entering Wheatland County and just aware of the space that we had to offer and the opportunity that’s here,” she explained. “We also over the course of the last year have updated our strategic plan, we implemented a new mission statement, new vision statement, and to me, this logo really encapsulates what we did with that.”

According to a release, the logo will be introduced into visual elements used by the county over time and as equipment or materials get changed out.  

The old county logo will be kept and used on emergency services patches such as those seen worn by police officers and fire fighters. The corporate seal and coat of arms will also remain unchanged for more formal use.

The timeline for complete integration and updates to signage and other amenities, as well as how much the update is going to cost, is still being determined.

“We’re doing some preliminary work on costing out our signs to start with … we haven’t made any final decisions about where we will be targeting the first sign, but we do have some key areas (in mind),” said Link.

Conceptual work on welcome signage design is underway, with the goal for the updates to be installed at the entrances to Wheatland County along the Trans-Canada Highway this year.

Priority areas identified include those areas missing signage altogether or signs that are not very noticeable.

The new logo features a stylized wheat stalk in blue and gold, with Wheatland County being easily identified in a sans serif font adjacent to the image.