Livable Communities |
Support places and identify opportunities that connect people to where they live, work and play
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Related Bi-state Initiative
Advance a comprehensive wayfinding system that capitalizes on placemaking opportunities and builds community engagement
Current Projects
Identity and Branding
The Calumet is a complex and historically fragmented region. This fragmentation is due in part to the intersecting rail, highway and waterways that are both transportation assets as well as challenges, the Illinois – Indiana State line, the 91 Counties, cities, towns, villages in over 1,900 square miles, and the patchwork of underutilized land and Brownfields throughout the Calumet. Fragmentation is also due in part to a lack of a coordinating entity or brand that brings communities together, versus communities competing against each other, to advance the region. The Calumet region boasts globally rare natural areas alongside industrial corridors and cultural heritage with national significance. By creating a unified identity and brand, the region can come together to promote this nationally significant place, and a positive identity and brand will also bring a renewed sense of place to those that work in the Calumet and call this region home.
The Calumet Collaborative has released an RFP that will solicit a consultant to create identity and branding work for the Calumet that will be used in two ways:
1) This work will be the identity and brand of the Calumet Heritage Area (CHA) and the eventual (with Congressional approval) Calumet National Heritage Area (CNHA). A bi-state coordinating committee is creating and managing the Calumet Heritage Area, which is a lived-in landscape that tells stories of the region’s national significance. Programming and content that will bring the heritage area to life is being provided by numerous local historical societies, environmental organizations, arts organizations, planning agencies, companies, and citizens.
2) A “toolkit” will be created and used to roll out this brand into current and emerging wayfinding systems (signage) that will capitalize on placemaking opportunities and build community engagement, while letting residents and visitors know that they are in the Calumet region. This toolkit will also be used by any partner that wishes to add Calumet region branding and messaging to their print and digital collateral and communication materials.
After an Identity and Branding exercise with the Calumet Collaboration’s Communications Committee held in May 2018, the Communications Committee identified available resources that tell the story of the Calumet region to give the eventual consultant the background on the region, and this background will help kick off the project.
Expected project completion is Q3 2019.
The Calumet is a complex and historically fragmented region. This fragmentation is due in part to the intersecting rail, highway and waterways that are both transportation assets as well as challenges, the Illinois – Indiana State line, the 91 Counties, cities, towns, villages in over 1,900 square miles, and the patchwork of underutilized land and Brownfields throughout the Calumet. Fragmentation is also due in part to a lack of a coordinating entity or brand that brings communities together, versus communities competing against each other, to advance the region. The Calumet region boasts globally rare natural areas alongside industrial corridors and cultural heritage with national significance. By creating a unified identity and brand, the region can come together to promote this nationally significant place, and a positive identity and brand will also bring a renewed sense of place to those that work in the Calumet and call this region home.
The Calumet Collaborative has released an RFP that will solicit a consultant to create identity and branding work for the Calumet that will be used in two ways:
1) This work will be the identity and brand of the Calumet Heritage Area (CHA) and the eventual (with Congressional approval) Calumet National Heritage Area (CNHA). A bi-state coordinating committee is creating and managing the Calumet Heritage Area, which is a lived-in landscape that tells stories of the region’s national significance. Programming and content that will bring the heritage area to life is being provided by numerous local historical societies, environmental organizations, arts organizations, planning agencies, companies, and citizens.
2) A “toolkit” will be created and used to roll out this brand into current and emerging wayfinding systems (signage) that will capitalize on placemaking opportunities and build community engagement, while letting residents and visitors know that they are in the Calumet region. This toolkit will also be used by any partner that wishes to add Calumet region branding and messaging to their print and digital collateral and communication materials.
After an Identity and Branding exercise with the Calumet Collaboration’s Communications Committee held in May 2018, the Communications Committee identified available resources that tell the story of the Calumet region to give the eventual consultant the background on the region, and this background will help kick off the project.
Expected project completion is Q3 2019.