New logo for Bigfork revealed

The new logo for Bigfork was unveiled Wednesday morning, another step forward in an ongoing effort to brand the community.

This has been a project of the Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce's marketing committee, which got underway at the beginning of this year. Representatives from organizations in the community formed Team Bigfork to collaborate on ideas. A new slogan, "Where Flathead Lake begins," was revealed this spring. Both the logo and tagline seek to play off of the Lake and natural resources in the area.

"We've come a long way since January 2010," Chamber President Diane Kautzman said.

The logo is intended to present a "positive, clear and consistent image" for the use of marketing the Village, according to the presentation, which was held at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts. It will be used on brochures, advertising, signs, banners, the chamber newsletter and merchandise. The final graphic work was done by Saga Design.

Signs will be a big part of the branding push. Samples of such signage were presented including directional signs to attractions like fishing accesses, the library, the tennis courts and Sliter Park. There are also plans to replace the wood sign near Montana Highway 35 that points people in the direction of downtown as well as the signs near the east edge of the Bigfork School District property.

Both the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork and the Bigfork Tourist Promotion Assessment have committed financial assistance to helping fund the signs and other aspects of the branding effort.

The hope is also that merchants will adopt it for carrying items like T-shirts, tote bags and caps with the logo on it. There will be specific requirements and regulations for using the new Bigfork logo, which the chamber is working to trademark.

Those guidelines were available after the meeting and can also be picked up from the chamber.

"This is your call to action," Kautzman said. "All of us are needed to succeed."

Also at the meeting, Mike Callaghan from Bigfork Web Development gave a sneak peak of the chamber's still-in-progress website. The goals of the revamped website, which is hoped to be completed before the end of the year, are to improve it for members and also add a tourism component. Features include an enhanced search tool, a members' login to update listings, print-friendly business directory screens, events listings starting on the home page and video components.

A video teaser of the community is also in progress and rough footage was shown at the event. The aim is to have a version of it completed after Decorating Days in November. The mostly completed video will be shown at the chamber's December dinner.

For more information, call the chamber at 837-5888.