City of Hermiston

With a reputation for “world-famous watermelons” and widely considered an agricultural hub of Northeastern Oregon, the community of Hermiston, Oregon has a lot to be proud of. In 2016, the City began the process of developing a community logo and tagline that the residents could rally behind. A small group oversaw the development, then did a soft launch of the new mark with the tagline, “You can grow here”. The only problem? It coincided with the state’s newly passed cannabis law allowing pot farms and retail sales. Needless to say, the public did not respond well and the City leadership sought Focal Point’s help in a brand do-over.

For a project of this size and scope, there was a lot of work to do before we ever picked up a pencil to work on designing a new brand. We partnered with Rochelle Olsen at Prominence Public Relations to help interview key community stakeholders; lead and coordinate a community branding committee comprised of City employees, residents, select business owners and even a few high school marketing class students; as well as analyze found data and write the final marketing and brand roll out strategy.

To gather diverse perspectives, we interviewed key City officials and council members, a handful of prominent business owners, representatives from the chamber of commerce and local Rotary clubs, as well as board members from the City’s rodeo commission. Armed with a lot of different points of view on the city’s history and why the initial brand/tagline rollout wasn’t successful, we were ready to begin the workshop phase.

Over the course of four separate workshop meetings with the community branding committee, we worked with this group of community members, young and old, to lay the groundwork for the visual identity development. Consisting of word association activities that had people writing, sketching and engaging with one another, Focal Point collected a copious amount of notes, worksheets and ideas that would influence the brand concepts and tagline development.

Through these workshops, we developed and fine-tuned the brand concepts down to two options, with two proposed taglines: “Where Life is Sweet” and “Where Opportunity Shines.” These final concepts were then tested with the Hermiston general public, both through online surveys as well as manned stations outside the local Walmart and other high traffic pedestrian areas. Returning nearly 1,200 responses, the Hermiston community weighed in and overwhelmingly selected what is now the final brand and tagline options.