Sunday, May 12, 2019
By SAMANTHA PHILLIPS
sphillips@vindy.com
LIBERTY
The creative mind behind the City of You campaign is working on a new branding project, this time for Youngstown’s neighbor to the north.
RJ Thompson, a Youngstown State University graphic design professor who created the award-winning Youngstown marketing and advertising campaign, and Kent Kerr, his project partner, were hired by Liberty officials to brand the community, which includes building a new website and a township logo.
Cost of the project’s research, planning and implementation is $3,700.
The goal is to build a brand for the township and instill creative placemaking initiatives, which incorporate using arts and cultural activities to shape the physical and social character of a town.
By doing so, officials hope to attract more people to the township.
Township Trustee Arnie Clebone said residents need to be like salespeople when they talk about the township. He believes a project like this could help attract and retain residents.
Thompson and Kerr are part of Plus Public, a community communication, research and design enterprise.
“Branding communities isn’t an entirely new thing, but our process is unique because it’s data driven,” Thompson said.
Right now, the duo is in the process of collecting research based on residents’ input.
The past couple of weeks they have hosted branding focus groups and a community storytelling session. At each event, residents discuss their ideas for the project and what Liberty means to them.
They’ve discussed project ideas, such as wayfinding signage on Interstate 80 and on state Route 11.
The team expects to have two more events, one that directly engages staff, faculty and students of the Liberty school district and another that focuses on specific visual design ideas for the logo.
Thompson and Kerr will compile the data into a report that will shape the project’s outcome.
What have they determined so far?
“The residents of Liberty share a sense of diversity — diversity in food, culture, in their socioeconomic status and even generational diversity,” Kerr said.
Other big values include education, accessibility – especially on Belmont Avenue – beautification and safety.
“It’s incredibly important that everyone involved in this project across the spectrum feels they’ve had a hand in designing this,” Thompson said.
Thompson draws some similarities between the response of Liberty residents and the response Youngstown residents had to City of You.
“The enthusiasm is incredibly high,” he said.
“The folks in Liberty have seen what’s going on in Youngstown in terms of transformation and revitalization, and they want some of that, too; they want to capture the same energy.”
Liberty officials have been focusing on transforming Belmont Avenue, which not only leads through the heart of the township but is also traversed by people going to institutions including Youngstown State University.
“There were conversations about Belmont, how it’s a commercial linchpin, but it’s not aesthetically pleasing,” Thompson said.
The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments corridor study, which focuses on Belmont Avenue, will begin midsummer and will study aspects such as traffic, safety and accessibility. Thompson and Kerr will aid the study with the data they have collected.
Thompson plans to apply for the National Endowment of the Arts’ Our Town grant, which could help with creating a common space in the township where people can meet and connect, which residents said they want.
Thompson and Kerr expect to have the logo and website finished and garner the trustee board’s approval by the end of June. They plan to launch the project mid-July.
For more information, go to https://www.pluspublic.org/liberty/.