Historic Downtown Owatonna / Wayfinding & Marketing
Revisiting History.
Owatonna, Minnesota is a small town right out of “It's A Wonderful Life”, and it also happens to be home to one of the most beautiful buildings in all the state—the Louis Sullivan "jewel box" Prairie-style bank. We worked with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota's Main Street Program in an effort to help revitalize Owatonna's downtown. We created an identity for their newly-designated historic downtown, drawing on the iconic bank and other historic architecture in the downtown. We also designed marketing materials, illustrations and a full wayfinding and placemaking signage package to help draw tourists to the downtown's attractions and reinforce its distinctive sense of place.
Work & Credits
Our Work: Discovery, visual brand identity, wayfinding & signage design & marketing collateral
Project Partner: Tom Ososki, architecture & urban planning
Journey of Re-discovery.
Our multi-disciplinary team kicked off the project by gathering downtown stakeholders, including the Mayor, members of the City Council and Chamber of Commerce in Owatonna for a discovery meeting. The meeting included discussions, brainstorming exercises and a frigid February tour of the downtown—brrrrr. This process, along with a survey conducted by the Chamber, provided us with invaluable stakeholder input and insights. The discovery process culminated in a document that detailed our findings, including a creative brief, a survey of the current situation, an outline of potential opportunities, a preliminary signage map and a set of recommended sign types.
Visual Identity & Culture
Creating A Sense of Place.
We developed a unique suite of signage meant to create a sense of place and to reinforce pride of place. On the downtown approach, Prairie-style pillars with banners line the bridge to mark the boundary of the downtown area. We redesigned the Central Park, the heart of the town, to restore an element of the historic oval shape of the park. We positioned arched trellises on the corners of the park that also serve as poster standards where the town can publicize events. A sculptural entrance arch adds interest to the southern entry, becoming both a key landmark and a focal for social media photos to help promote tourism.
Gateway Identification - Bridge
Gateway Identification - Street
Directionals - Vehicular
Final execution by ISG.
Placemaking - Central Park Planters
Placemaking - Central Park Archway & Garden
Wayfinding - Pedestrian
Final execution by ISG.
Guiding The Visitor Experience.
With the advent of freeways, many historic downtowns like Owatonna find themselves far from where the traffic is. We developed a comprehensive, highly visible vehicular wayfinding system that leveraged the new historic downtown identity. The signage system guides visitors clearly to and through the downtown, pointing to public parking at the appropriate places and key landmarks and other amenities. Once the visitor is out of their car, kiosks and mini-kiosks direct them on foot to where they want to go.
