The City of Centerton no longer wants to live in the shadows of its larger neighbors.
As part of that effort, the city government is rolling out a rebrand that includes a new logo and tagline.
Centerton’s population has grown more than twelvefold since the turn of the century. In 2000, the city was home to an estimated 2,000 people. The latest estimates put the population at more than 25,000.
The city government’s new branding guidelines are explicit about the desire to move beyond its reputation as a bedroom community and develop an identity of its own:
“While Centerton has previously depended on neighboring communities for essential needs and infrastructure, the city is laying the foundation for greater economic independence, new celebrated landmarks and a distinct sense of place that will shape the Centerton of Tomorrow.”
The New Brand: Community at our Core
The city’s official tagline is now “Community at our Core,” which is intended to communicate that no matter what growth has in store for Centerton, “the people who call it home will always be the heart of what makes it a great place to live and visit,” according to design materials.
The logo’s core is an apple cross-section as a nod to Centerton’s agricultural history. The town was first established as a railroad stop and as a processing center for the region’s once-thriving apple industry, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The seeds are diamond-shaped as a reference to the Arkansas state flag design.
The new design work also includes standardized logos for city departments, along with official colors and fonts.
“As we grow, I think that our goal is that Centerton is recognizable and professional and clearly defined,” city planner Tara Culpepper-Miller said while presenting the new branding to the Centerton City Council on Tuesday, January 13.
“This brand didn’t come just as a marketing scheme of sorts. It’s there to support economic development and recruitment and long-term planning,” she said.
In addition to engaging local community members at a branding workshop, the process also “included research into Centerton’s history, the environment, and the regional context,” Culpepper-Miller said.
City Council member Wendy Henson said the team had done “a great job” and that it was “perfect for what we are.”
City Council member Josie Reed agreed.
“I really like the department logos, because I know they were a little bit hodgepodge. So this is really going to bring some consistency across the whole city,” she said.
The city worked on the new branding for six months and received the design services at no cost through the Center for Community and Economic Development at the University of Central Arkansas, according to Culpepper-Miller.
Other Efforts
There are other efforts underway to help the city develop a distinct identity.
In May of last year, The Bentonville Bulletin reported on Centerton’s plan to build an entirely new, urbanized downtown core on 400 acres of mostly empty fields. The idea is to create a walkable, mixed-use development with greater density than the single-family neighborhoods that currently define much of Centerton.
The existing downtown strip includes just a handful of businesses, and development is restricted by floodplain concerns, which prompted those involved to consider the fields across Highway 102 (Centerton Boulevard) from the existing downtown as a new community hub.
Planning for the new downtown area involved a soul-searching effort that resulted in a 30-page report. The process included taking stock of existing assets, polling residents and taking a broad view of what the future of the city could look like.
At the time the plan was released, Kayla Knight, a planner with the city of Centerton, said, “Many people have said Centerton is a bedroom community. All we really have right now is houses.”
However, Knight said, “We want to be the whole house. We want to be able to eat, sleep, play and work in our own city.”
The initial plan for the project was completed with assistance from ULI Northwest Arkansas. Garver was selected in September to lead the next stage of planning.
Additionally, a group of business leaders has come together in recent years to create the Centerton Area Chamber of Commerce.
Brainstorming for what would eventually become the chamber began about 4 years ago, according to Reed, who now serves as its director in addition to being a city council member.
“Businesses were starting to come, and we wanted to unify them,” Reed said. “We want to create awareness that we have these businesses in Centerton.”
Over the last 2 years, that effort has accelerated, with the chamber hosting its first events and growing its membership base. It currently has about 85 business members, Reed said.
The chamber’s primary objective is to help local businesses succeed, but Reed said she also sees an opportunity for it to support the city’s long-term development efforts.