Petaluma Star & Fertile Ground
Petaluma Star &
Fertile Ground
We created the Petaluma Star brand and the Fertile Ground economic development campaign for the City of Petaluma, to establish a consistent identity for the city and help lower the steadily increasing commercial vacancy rate.
The Petaluma Star brand captures the essence of the city. We built a brand that makes sense to someone who's been in Petaluma for decades and someone making their first visit. We told the stories of a wide range of community businesses and the people who worked there — supported by fresh photography and videos.
The Fertile Ground campaign brought new businesses to Petaluma. After two years of the campaign, the vacancy rate dropped from 28% to 8%. We established a strong brand and communication foundation that informs the work we're doing with the City of Petaluma today, ten years later.
Scope
Strategy
Branding
Print Design
Web Design
Copywriting
Photography
Illustration
Video
Social Media
Community Engagement
Translation
Media Buying
Print Buying
logo
Petaluma Star Brand
Petaluma has a hue and patina all its own. Our efforts focused on the essence of our city by capturing the textures, shades, aged surfaces, artistic details, historic backdrops, modern products and our close connection with the land around us. These portraits, shot on location, were used to create a visual wallpaper that gave a feel for how things are in Petaluma.
The star was selected as the city’s icon because we loved the fact that it is stamped on the rebar, in buildings, throughout the city. The choice to make the star red was a nod to the California flag. For typographic styles, we studied local signage.
Color
typography
Fertile Ground Campaign
We found our way to the Fertile Ground concept during a brainstorming session where we explored the things that have made Petaluma desirable since it was first founded. Fertile Ground communicates not only the agricultural history of the city, it also conveys that this is a place where things grow easily.
Interactive brochure (outside)
Interactive brochure (Inside)
Petaluma Star Website
The Petaluma Star website was built to provide:
The local business community with tools and resources
Businesses considering a move to Petaluma with information about the city and the market
The economic development department with a connection point and a hub for social media engagement
In addition to establishing a place where business decision makers could go to get the information they needed, we created a collection of portraits of businesses and individuals working in Petaluma, to tell the story of how the city made good things possible.
