On the official seal of the city of Prineville, a train snakes through a barren landscape under a cloudless sky.

It’s a picturesque scene, but according to city officials, it doesn’t tell the story of a growing community rooted in agriculture, industry and outdoor tourism. And some say Crook County’s other logos — a county seal showing a sun rising between the hills and a chamber of commerce stamp featuring the silhouette of a rural community, among others — are also in need of an upgrade.

Following the lead of other communities like Sisters, which earlier this year debuted a new, Western-style brand logo, a team of Crook County residents is developing a proposal for a new brand campaign they hope will attract people to live, work and play in Prine-ville and the rest of Crook County.

The plan has gotten the go-ahead from the Prine-ville City Council and Prine- ville-Crook County Chamber of Commerce and will be presented to the Crook County Court on Jan. 2. Officials said the goal is to start with a new logo and eventually expand to a broader campaign that will involve multiple players in the community.

“If we can establish a unique or consistent identity, we’ll be able to be marketed better to people outside the community,” said Jay Porter, who will become president of the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. “That requires a consistent message … we want them to see the brand, get interested, come here and actually see it in place. We want to get retailers and restaurants and other businesses involved, and we want the government involved.”

Iverson said part of the reason Prineville and the rest of Crook County, with a total population of just under 23,000, needs an image boost is because of the area’s off-the-beaten-path location.

The region attracts tourists for hiking, fishing, camping and even rockhounding, but he said there’s always room to grow.

“One of the things that makes us a little different is that we’re not on any of the traffic corridors,” he said. “You have to go through Redmond, Madras and even Sisters, so they get a lot of attention. There’s at least the idea that people know what Madras is because they drive through it. With us being off of that major traffic corridor, this is a way to show who we are.”

If the branding project is approved by the county and moves forward, Porter estimates that it would cost approximately $7,500, to be split evenly between the city, county and chamber of commerce. The money would be used to implement a new, universal logo and possibly a tagline that would be created from community input, said Brian Iverson, the creative director and chief strategist of The Iverson Group, the Prineville-based firm leading the branding campaign.

“(The branding process) will probably take three months — there will be community surveys that go out to businesses, local leaders and other people that want to have some input,” Iverson said. “We’ll try to compile as much of that information as possible, and as we build through the process, we’ll narrow things down and start new things. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll go back and start again, but hopefully we’ll get it right the first time.”

In the long run, the project’s planners, and city and county officials said they hope the Crook County-Prineville brand will be much more than a logo.

Bill Mintiens, who works with the Iverson Group and also serves as the Sisters Chamber of Commerce’s economic development chairman, helped guide the similar project in Sisters. He said the project in that city — and in others, like Milton-Freewater, which recently put in place a frog theme — have provided the groundwork for similar efforts elsewhere.

“The ultimate examples of branding are things like the ‘Big Apple’ in New York — something that separates New York from Chicago or Nashville and everything else,” Mintiens said. “What we’re doing here is not unique, it’s just part and parcel of what consumer products have been doing for years in terms of separating them from the competition. And I think this timing is just right for (Crook County) to do it, because the cost of real estate and land in Prineville is less than in Bend, Redmond and Sisters, so it’s attractive to people on that front.”

The success of a branding project, Mintiens said, is determined largely by the amount of support from the community.

“You don’t just have a new brand, a new tagline and unveil it and then it stops,” he said. “It’s like ‘Here’s your new car, but there’s no gas in it.’ For a strong brand in a city, you really have to get buy-in, to help (residents) see how to incorporate it into their lives.”

Changing the image of the area, said Prineville Mayor Mike Wendel, will be a long-term process, but a necessary step toward making the area more competitive in the race for new residents and visitors.

“I think we have a long way to go before it’s done,” he said. “It’s getting very competitive with people, deciding where they’re going to locate their businesses and residency … we want to show people what Prineville is all about. Hopefully they’ll want to come and see, because it’s a great community and a great place to call home.”