Rebranding Small Businesses in the Face of Community Gentrification — Jan Ballard
Channel: TypeCon
Date: 2019-07-02

Recorded during TypeCon2018: Xx in Portland, Oregon

A branding exercise challenges seniors to look at the neighborhoods surrounding their university for small businesses struggling to survive in the face of city gentrification. As upper income twenty year olds, the very target market the reinvestment zone seeks, the university students are tasked to create a rebranding proposal for an existing small business. Students must locate a small business by driving around the areas adjacent to the university.

A city policy document of the Tax Increment Financing district nearby is provided to the student. The students research the detailed document authorized by the state tax code by which local governments can publicly finance needed structural improvements and enhanced infrastructure within a defined area called a reinvestment zone. Streetscapes of urban villages are investigated to determine deliverables in logotype, signage, and consideration of pedestrian viewing distances.

By this research, students distill large amounts of information and determine data needed for a design brief. They become aware of the importance of visual deliverables in retail and environmental design proposals, and they realize the power of design and rebranding in its role in repositioning small businesses. The graduating designers reinforce the university mission statement by striving to be an active member of their surrounding community, and they leave a document for creating a thriving and ethnically diversified environment.