Branding a Neighborhood

Building comprehensive brands for organizations is never easy. So imagine doing it pro bono for an entirely volunteer non-profit organization who never had a brand before. Such was the two-year project I recently completed for the Church Hill Association (CHA) with my own neighborhood in Richmond.

The project began with the understanding that a full-blown brand was missing not only for the CHA, but for the neighborhood itself. Church Hill is a very historic, gorgeous neighborhood and we weren’t showing it. It was here that Patrick Henry gave his famous “Liberty or Death” speech in 1775, and Richmond’s first streets appeared. So it felt right to start the brand with the tagline “Where Richmond began.”

From there we developed a brand positioning statement, updated the CHA logo, chose specific colors and fonts, worked with photographers, built communication materials, and most recently completed the website.

Ultimately the main reason for the new website was to give the CHA a place to put all their information–meeting dates, bylaws, programs and events–and ask residents to “Join the CHA.”

The website is now also a major resource for tourists and businesses wanting to come to Church Hill. It provides homeowners with details about caring for historic houses, and provides crucial city and CHA board contacts.

Thank you to Worthington Photography who donated a year’s worth of seasonal images for the gallery, to the volunteer CHA committee who researched and proofed things like crazy, and to Christina Reeser of io studio who programmed the site. You were a gracious and lovely team.

Click to visit the new ChurchHill.org website here.