In 2018, Arcturis was engaged by the City of Brentwood, Missouri to craft an identity for the Manchester Renewal Project. The project’s intent, in concert with Great Rivers Greenway and civil engineering demands, is to renew and support changes to the area that will integrate and revitalize retail, residential, pedestrian, and vehicular activity. Arcturis’ Landscape Architecture and Planning team is collaborating on this project as well, and we are thrilled to touch all aspects of the transformation.
Our initial work sessions with the client team helped us to understand the diverse and changing demographics of Brentwood. It was important to reflect the spirit of the growing and energetic community when we concepted this community outreach campaign. Thus, to contemporarily reflect the project goals and intentions, the visual brand had to be dynamic, approachable, and vibrant. The spirited letterforms selected were originally inspired by and created for use in a neighborhood in Argentina where the typographer was raised. Although this city is half a world away from Brentwood, using this typeface provided clarity and communicated a similar story for this flourishing community. Arcturis developed a brand strategy for this community outreach program entitled Brentwood Bound which included a logo, typography, brand standards, secondary tagline options, and suggestions for use.
Nestled into the word Brentwood, a graphic “100” serves as a subtle nod to Brentwood’s centennial year in 2019 and to a future 100 years of growth. It also refers to Manchester Road’s other name as Missouri “Route 100.” Leveraging elements like a red circle and a bold letter “B,” the round icon ties back into the existing park identity developed by Arcturis, yet the new elements better tell the project story and intent. A looped “knot” in the center signifies binding the community together and connecting the greenway to Brentwood and the surrounding communities.
To provide consistency between the brands, colors for this effort were pulled from the Brentwood parks identity palette. However, the team selected brighter and more vibrant tones of these colors to add visual interest and excitement to Brentwood Bound’s brand creating a larger overall palette to diversify the identity.
In addition to the logo and as a part of the kit, we supplied the team with additional brand elements by creating a pattern of shapes through deconstructing various letters and other elements from the logo. This pattern illustrates the idea of all the various elements of the project combining to create a brighter future for the city. By providing the client with robust examples and guidelines for how to use their new brand identity, they successfully utilized the kit of parts to create an overall branded experience.
