Prince William County continues its march toward a brand identity. Getting there may not be easy.

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Prince William County leaders want more drivers to see the signs.

For years, there have been green highway signs on highways welcoming drivers to the county. Blue street signs hung on the mast arms of signal lights show street names.

There are also signs posted outside every government building, and just about every residential subdivision and office park, too.

But county leaders want more, and in September the Board of Supervisors tasked county communications director Jason Grant to come up with plans for a new set of highway markers that would identify one brand — Prince William County, Virginia.

This month, Grant showed officials what he’d come up with. There are gateway signs — those you see as you cross into the county — that would be placed on bases made of brick or stone.

There are signs that point the way to county buildings and complexes. Once there, more branded directional signs will point drivers to the exact spot where they need to go on the property.

Once out of the car, drivers will see branded signs on the side of county buildings. The color of the signs will match those of the county government seal, and the seal will also be featured on some of them.

The proposed lettering on the signs will spell out, simply, “Prince William, Virginia,” in an easy-to-read, uniform font on all signs. Think of it as the county’s new logo.

On even more signs, instead of saying only “Prince William, Virginia,” they will also note the locations of places in the county — like Woodbridge, Bristow or Gainesville — areas that are noted on a map but are not independent towns or cities.

“A place like Woodbridge is not a city with a governing body, but they are places, and many from other states may not recognize that,” said Grant.

The idea behind the new signs is to make a “sense of place” in Prince William County and to help build a community identity for residents and visitors alike.

As communities mature, we see signs like these pop up all over. And those maturing areas — whether they be a county, city or just a place on a map — are leaving behind a portion of their names.

“Other counties are trying to drop ‘county’ or ‘city’ from their marketing,” said Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe. “It all started with Tysons.”

In 2016, the Tysons Partnership rebranded Tysons Corner, the quiet Washington, D.C. suburb turned economic juggernaut in Fairfax County, which is not a city but a designated population place by the U.S. Census Bureau, “Tysons.”

Prince William County is doing the same by proposing to drop “county” from the sign and its branding.

That prompted comments from county leaders who questioned whether or not dropping “county” from the branding would cause out-of-towners to question the region’s connection to 35-year-old British royal Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, who is next in line for the British throne.

“If we drop ‘county’ from the signage, my concern is that people will want to know ‘Where is Kate Middleton?’ (the Duchess of Cambridge who is married to William),” said Nohe.

Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson said that while traveling, she wore a t-shirt from a local fundraiser called “Walk for Prince William.”

While she was out of town and wearing it, “someone asked me, ‘why are you walking for him?'” said Lawson, referring to the British royal.

Prince William County Executive Christopher Martino said Grant will come back to the Board within the next 30 days for another presentation of the signs. In the meantime, county leaders hope to get feedback from the public on what they think of the new design. 

So far, no one is talking about how much the new wayfinding signage program will cost.

Stafford County began its wayfinding program 10 years ago

The idea of erecting wayfinding signs in Stafford County, Prince William County’s neighbor to the south, was first floated in 2007.

The county wanted a way to capitalize on its connection to President George Washington and Ferry Farm, where he lived as a child on the Rappahannock River across from Fredericksburg.

The signs not only had to depict a young Washington rolling a hoop — a popular colonial-era children’s game — but also needed to list the locations of government buildings and attractions like parks, marinas and wineries.

At the time, Margaret Clay “MC” Morris was working as the head of the county’s tourism office. It was her job to bring elected officials, government employees, residents and business owners to the table to hash out a plan that would determine how the signs would look, where they could be erected and what would appear on them.

Would the signs only list the location of the county’s iconic courthouse and other government buildings? Could Joe’s Barbershop be listed? Should the signs be located only at county entrances or dot the landscape?

“We had an advisory committee and brought in all the stakeholders,” said Morris. “We decided that if something was going to appear on the signs, it had to be a heritage site or a recreational site… a place that is so unique to our area you couldn’t replicate it in the next jurisdiction over or at the next intersection down the highway.”

Stafford’s wayfinding sign program was part of a pilot program administered by the Virginia Department of Transportation. The highway department allowed the county to use red and blue signs modeled after highway signs along Interstate 64 that welcome visitors to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown — known as America’s historic triangle because of the region’s link the country’s colonial past and Revolutionary War.

If Stafford’s signs were going to list unique businesses, members of the working group knew they had to make the signs big enough to add the names of newly opened merchants and remove ones that had closed.

In the end, it was decided that wineries were to be added because they work hand-in-hand with the state’s agriculture department for promotion. And so were golf courses and the Riverside Dinner Theater.

Today, breweries are also listed on the signs, as they have become more prevalent over the past five years. Not one business owner called Morris to ask that they also be included on a sign during the time the rules were being written, she said.

And it’s not just the county government that adopted the new look of the signs. Sugar Shack — a walk-up/drive-through doughnut and coffee shop in North Stafford — painted an image on the side of their building similar to what is on Stafford’s wayfinding signs — of a young Washington rolling not a hoop, but a doughnut.

“A tear came to my eye when I saw that,” said Morris. “It’s not the [official] county seal, so they can use it however they want to, and it’s wonderful when people play along.”

Same county, different corporate identities 

As the Board of Supervisors debate whether or not “county” should be included in the branding, that may be the least of the worries as it tries to develop one signature brand strategy.

Neabsco District Supervisor John Jenkins asked Grant if his plan also included changing the logos on water towers in the county. To that, Grant replied it could be done on a rotating basis when it comes time to rehabilitate and paint aging water tanks.

A project to repaint the tank at Potomac Mills mall was recently completed.

One of the agencies in charge of supplying water to homes and maintaining water tanks in Prince William County is the Prince William Service Authority — a quasi-government agency with headquarters located next to the Prince William County Government Center, but operating independently of the county government.

It has spent years developing its branding, slapping its logo on the sides of its towers and building The Durward E. Grubbs Environmental Education Center in Woodbridge that has a visitors exhibit and 6,200 square feet of laboratory space to tell the story of water service in Prince William County.

The county’s Department of Economic Development, too, had its own logo developed in 2013. It decided to break ranks with the county government and stopped using the county seal, opting instead for a blue and gray boxed logo.

The blue-box was also added to a gateway sign at the intersection of Route 123 and Old Bridge Road near Occoquan.

The move sparked criticism from the Board of Supervisors, but in the end, the economic development office would have its own logo while the rest of the county government would continue to use the seal.

And the blue-gray box added to the road sign? It was replaced shortly after that with the county seal.