WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) -- The city of West Lafayette now has a new logo. This project has been a year in the making.

City leaders are slowly introducing the new logo into its daily operations. Right now, it can be found in the signature of city emails and on the official city website. But in the future, it'll be added to apparel and community signage.

This is the former logo, which is the same logo the city of Lafayette uses just with "Home of Purdue" added on top.

This is the new logo.

West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis said the former logo didn't represent the city very well. 

"The most recent logo that we see on a lot of vehicles and things is the old 'goal post,' it's got the courthouse on one end and then the Purdue tower on the other, and honestly, there's not much of West Lafayette in between," said Dennis.

The new logo includes four key elements. The newly renovated Margerum City Hall building is in the center with the Purdue belltower peeking from behind.

In the upper right corner are leaves canopying over the city hall building. That symbolizes all the nature and green space offered in the community. Then at the bottom of the logo, is an image of the bridge that connects West Lafayette to Lafayette and Tippecanoe County.

Dennis said it's long overdue for the city to have its own distinguishing symbol.

"We've got the success story of Purdue, you have the success story of Lafayette, the success story of Tippecanoe County well we also have a success story here in West Lafayette and we want to make sure that what we do is iconic and represents some of the great things that we've done," Dennis. 

While these entities have a great partnership, Mayor John Dennis said it's important West Lafayette is still set apart.

"We felt with those strong partnerships its imperative that we sort of identify ourselves a little different so that we have some uniqueness that people will understand, 'oh that's a West Lafayette truck' or 'that's a West Lafayette park' or 'that's a West Lafayette investment,'" said Dennis

Several city department leaders came together to provide input on what this symbol should include. While this logo reads "Home of Purdue" at the bottom, different departments will be able to swap out that wording with their own name.

The police and fire departments will not be implementing this new symbol on their vehicles or uniforms. Mayor Dennis said it's important they keep the old logo to be easily identified in the case of an emergency. They may, however, implement the symbol on signage in and outside their buildings.