Dutchtown: Bringing clarity and character to a historic business district

How we created a brand — and a spokesbird — for the City’s biggest CID.

Challenge

The historic Dutchtown neighborhood has the biggest Community Improvement District (CID) in Saint Louis. But when even the name is a misnomer, how do you make a sprawling neighborhood into a destination?

Insight

With multiple incubators for local entrepreneurs, Dutchtown is the place to try things out and mix things up.

Solution

Create a vibrant new identity grounded in Dutchtown’s history and inspired by its enterprising energy, complete with a spokesman to help make sense of the fact that “Dutchtown” isn’t actually Dutch.

Dutchtown is German.

Its now-permanent nickname is actually a shorthand for “Deutsch Town.” So when the neighborhood CID board came to us for help repositioning the neighborhood as a destination for City-loving spenders, we had a pretty obvious place to start.

Other distinguishing features of this historic neighborhood aside from its mass-misunderstood name include: historic architecture that makes liberal use of mosaic tile, being the birthplace of iconic confectioners including Dad’s Cookies and Ted Drewe’s, and an innovative incubator system for budding restaurateurs and retailers who have major vision, but less access to space and capital.

‍

There’s no one path

After developing creative territories centered on each of Dutchtown’s most ownable aspects, we took the top three to business owners and residents for their input. And there was (for once!) clear consensus: Keep the color, dynamism, and exploratory nature of “Get in the Mix” but do NOT, for any reason, lose that woodpecker.

The accompanying brand platform, Get in the Mix, embraces Dutchtown’s vibrant, mulifaceted mix of people, businesses and ideas. Colorful, wiggly lines wink at the neighborhood’s funky boundary lines while inviting visitors and residents alike to appreciate the fact that the landscape is always evolving.

The hand constructed look and feel suits a neighborhood that’s constantly creating and reimagining itself, and encourages others to do the same.

Syd rhymes with CID

A central figure of the new brand identity is Syd: a German woodpecker and Dutchtown’s friendly, vocal (and persistent!) neighborhood mascot. Like all woodpeckers, Syd is great at digging just below the surface to reveal the unexpected.

Originally pitched as a mosaic tile construction, Syd survived multiple rounds to arrive at his final form — now, with whinnies!

‍

Put a bird on it

Neighborhood branding can’t be confined to the Internet. So in addition to putting the whole identity into motion online (more to come on that later) we also cast it in metal to hang along the central corridor and give the business district a sense of place — and pride.

Like, save, send and follow

Rounding out the CID’s new brand assets are a suite of templates, stickers and other decorative flourishes to make the neighborhood social accounts (almost) as appealing as the neighborhood itself.

Creating a destination online and off

The new web presence gives residents, property- and business-owners a better sense of everything the CID does for the neighborhood, while helping entrepreneurs envision themselves in available spaces. At the same time, the business directory and events calendar help visitors plot out their own plans to get in the mix.