The rural logo that appears on this web page was designed for the Cooperative Extension System's (CES) national initiative, Revitalizing Rural America. The logo first appeared on a CES poster and book cover for the publication, Revitalizing Rural America: A Cooperative Extension System Response, prepared in November 1986 for the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy and the USDA Extension Service (ES).
In 1987, the ES, a joint sponsor with the National Agricultural Library of the implementation of the Rural Information Center (RIC) as part of the national rural initiative, incorporated the color logo for RIC factsheets and educational materials and also prepared a black and white reproduction that RIC uses on its factsheet that appears in all RIC printed publications.