Sometimes the details make the difference. The new brand for Kane, Pennsylvania, was unveiled Wednesday, and it puts a spotlight on the details.
Ben Muldrow of Arnett Muldrow, a creative planning firm based in Greenville, S.C., unveiled the brand and corresponding brand toolbox during a Zoom meeting with Kate Kennedy, executive director of the Kane Area Development Center.
During his presentation, he explained that the creation of a brand for a community is focused on discovering the community’s personality and providing tools to officials in the area that help present that personality.
“Having a unified brand that promotes our economic development while at the same time preserving our history has been a missing piece during this time of revitalization. By creating a destination brand, especially one that was formed from valuable input from citizens, alumni, and visitors, we can move forward in a more cohesive and connected manner,” said Kane Mayor Brandy Schimp when contacted Thursday.
The brand toolbox has a variety of components, including font styles, color palettes, graphic use and a brand statement. The purpose of a brand toolbox is to allow cohesion across multiple areas of the community.
The community’s identification as “A star in the forest” will continue, and the brand toolbox will work to highlight that.
Muldrow’s presentation provided a look at specific fonts the firm suggested for primary, secondary and accent use, as well as a natural color palette with a very specific hue of red and blue and greens and wood tones to complement those hues. The discussion also covered the use of a wolf, a star and forest as graphic components to the brand presentation and concluded with a reading of a brand statement, which highlights the rich history of the Kane area and the exciting things to come for the community.
A six-pointed star will be a primary graphic put into use, which not only will allow the area to show the six components of the community’s identity but also has historic associations. The six points Muldrow noted as areas to highlight included the area’s flavors, timber, history, community, arts and the outdoors.
This is a continuation of an ongoing effort. A survey was conducted as part of the research for the brand and toolbox, which received 838 responses.
“It is rare for over 800 responses, especially in a community the size of Kane,” Muldrow stated. “That shows phenomenal involvement.”
Muldrow noted his firm has worked with communities as small as 140 people in total and as large as cities like Chicago or Portland. With this background, he said that the response sent a clear signal.
“There’s passion here,” he said, referring to the Kane community. “We picked up on that passion every step of the way.”
Muldrow also noted during discussion of the survey results that some of those who responded identified as tourists who do not live in the town but felt a strong enough connection to take the time to fill out the survey anyway.
In addition, the response to whether Kane could be viewed as a great place to live was 97% positive. The general response to the survey was 90% positive or neutral.
“We are not used to numbers that trend this positive,” Muldrow noted.
He attributed the positive attitude to the location of Kane, which allows for positivity and a sense of connection between residents because it is a somewhat self-contained area.
Muldrow also pointed out that the survey response indicated the area is “hungry for retail expansion,” which is a positive for the area as a whole.
Now that the toolbox is available, there is more work to be done.
“The next step is to incorporate the brand in the Kane website, https://kanepa.com, and to create marketing and promotional materials using the brand,” said Kennedy. “I will be seeking funding to take these next steps. The brand toolkit is also available to local businesses if they are interested in incorporating it into their signage or if they want to create Kane merchandise.” She noted business owners who are interested can contact her at [email protected] to request the information.
This work is already in progress in some instances.
“Also, extensions of the brand are being worked on, too. For example, the Kane Chamber of Commerce, Kane Area Revitalization Enterprise (KARE) and Kane Area Industrial Development Corporation (KAIDC) are being given recommendations for updated logos incorporating the new brand. We hope it will bring a united and consistent feel to Kane,” Kennedy added.
