
The intersection at Wisconsin Ave. and 3rd Street used to be the heartbeat of Downtown Milwaukee. For a long time now it has been very quiet. At the center of it is what used to be the Grand Avenue Mall. This collection of buildings is being reimagined by some good people, and we (CI Design) were invited to help create the brand story and visual identity for the new development. This short article is a little glimpse into the writing process.
Below is a foundational elevator talk we crafted for the project. I use the word "foundational" because this short, three-part message does more than tell a story. It presents a structure for the story, a frame for the messaging. (I'll say more about that later on.)
THIS PART OF DOWNTOWN IS ABOUT TO COME ALIVE.
With a brand story that has a lot of complexity (a lot to include), it's most beneficial to create a frame for all the different elements. In this case, the owners of The Avenue are doing much more than redeveloping some buildings. The story shouldn't start with the building. It should start with the essence of what they are ultimately doing for this part of downtown. They are helping to bring life back to this quiet part of the city. That's the starting point, the frame that we attach all the information to, a thread that ties everything together in a meaningful way.
We started the writing process by first finding the right metaphor to capture the essence of the story. We saw The Avenue and 3rd Street Market Hall as the kitchen of downtown, because the kitchen is a room in a house where people typically gather. In many cases, the kitchen is the most alive room in the house. It's the space where food is prepared and enjoyed, ideas are shared; all kinds of life happens there. That's what The Avenue seeks to be, a place where people connect around FOOD, IDEAS and LIFESTYLE. Those three categories were identified as we considered the metaphor of a kitchen. They also helped us to organize the three main parts of the project:
In writing a brand story, we don't want to simply list all the services and products. We want to frame them so they are meaningfully organized. We found our story framework inside the metaphor of the kitchen. The kitchen metaphor gave us insights into vocabulary choices and a structure for the story.
For all messaging (for any organization), a frame is critical. Every company can benefit from defining a clear and consistent frame for their story. If you don't have the story framework, then your audiences will likely not be able to feel the meaningful connections that exist between the different services or products that you offer, and you as an internal team won't be as aligned as you could be. That insight has profound implications. Without the frame, the story will inevitably be fragmented.
Finding the frame for The Avenue story was fun because the owners/leaders of the project are putting real heart into it. We just needed to listen to that heart and the frame revealed itself. The kitchen... a lot of life happens there.
We also created the visual identity for The Avenue and 3rd Street Market Hall. The t-shirts are pretty cool if I do say so myself. Jim Taugher (CI Design’s Creative Director) brought some extra magic to this one. You can read about his approach to this project here.
Find out how our award-winning branding experts can help bring your story to life. Send us a message at hello@cidesigninc.com.