As part of a branding effort designed to promote Wake County as a "premier leisure and meeting destination," the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled a new logo on Tuesday titled "Pulse."

Leaning to the left of a "visitRaleigh" slogan, the squares and star are designed to represent some of Wake's prime attributes -- green represents the environment, yellow-green stands for new growth, blue calls to mind "the beautiful" Carolina sky, purple the county's "elegance and sophistication." Of course, the star in the red square represents the state Capitol, while its freehand style embodies the "handmade, imaginative quality of the visual and performing arts in Raleigh."

There's more from the bureau's news release explaining the logo. The 12 squares in the logo represent Wake's dozen towns and cities. The green squares surrounding the red square stand for a "city in a park" concept. The squares can be seen as pixels that give a nod to Research Triangle Park, the large number of professionals with college degrees or "smart city/county growth planning through highly organized but organic components."

Our favorite: The font for "Raleigh" is from "a classic typeface that is legible, friendly and elegant in its simplicity and graceful curves."

Oh, the cost for this branding effort, which includes a Web site and ads for a marketing campaign, has so far reached $313,332, according to bureau officials.