Key Challenge
You can lead a horse to water, but can you make it collaborate? Regional economic development is being hailed by the experts as the best way for communities to gain economic growth and competitive advantage. But when the seven counties and 11 economic development organizations anchored by Cedar Rapids and Iowa City formed just such a region, they weren’t sure where to go next. Leaders found themselves in need of a rallying point to facilitate collaborative thinking and turned to North Star for development of a regional economic development brand.

Critical Insight
North Star research found that this region along I-380 and I-80 is not just a transportation route, but is more like a transformative conduit offering individuals and businesses the resources and opportunities to change and grow exponentially more successful. Art and science, knowledge and power, learning and teaching, and dreams and reality all co-exist and contribute to the transformative environment. After all, everything grows better in Iowa!

Brand Strategy
Geographically the region stretches from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City along Interstates 380 and 80.  North Star recommended that the region target people and businesses seeking a place with infinite possibility. North Star positioned the region as the conduit for transformative reaction that sparks knowledge to power, learning to living and dreams to reality so that each individual, each idea, each business and each city is exponentially more successful. After the completion of the new brand, Creative Corridor leaders launched a website to educate stakeholders on all of its details. (www.corridor2020.com)

• The region was renamed “Iowa’s Creative Corridor”, which clearly establishes it as the source of creative innovation in Iowa.
  
  
• A double helix serves triple duty as the logo. On one level it is a stylized representation of the region’s acronym, ICC. On a deeper level, the double helix represents the duality of art and science, the individual and community. Deeper still, the helix is reminiscent of DNA, which represents the spark of life and the signature of the individual. Click here for full logo rationale.
  
  
• Creative work uses the beauty of real DNA to present the depth and breadth of accomplishments throughout the corridor. In one example, names of all the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning authors who have graduated from Iowa Writers’ Workshop along with their book titles and movies are woven together to create a DNA strand.
  

Initial Concept

One of the ways North Star brings your community brand to life is with a Brand Identity package, which is the creative representation of your community brand. Creative goodies include recommendations for a logo, strap line, color palette, print ads, outdoor boards, t-shirts, websites and more!  

 

Evolution of the Idea

 

• Promote an innovation imperative within the region - Organizational initiatives such as the DNA Project promote an innovation imperative in the region that starts with a cataloguing of existing sources and examples of creative innovation. 

  
  

• Engage the brand in economic development - Economic development recruitment promotes  the region as having creative innovation in its DNA
  

   

• Create a sense of place through use of the brand - Renaming the regional airport puts a major economic development asset in the context of the brand.
  

• Develop communication and marketing materials - Marketing and public relations focus on existing innovators and innovation in the Corridor, giving the region a unified platform to tout awards and accolades.
  
  
  
  
• Create branded merchandise/promotional - Merchandise embodies imaginative creativity.

  

Press

Kudos

"North Star provided great expertise in our regional branding efforts. The actual process of branding with North Star was almost as important as the final product. It really served to get us thinking collaboratively. The brand that they helped uncover is a critical part of our overall effort to work and plan more as a region, which will help us better compete in a global economy."
- John F. Lohman, President & Publisher/Corridor Business Journal, Corridor Business Alliance

"A regional brand requires an extensive process of uncovering a region’s identity and ugly truths and owning them. North Star helped us truly understand the value of this process which is well beyond the simple view of buying a name and logo. We have much work to do but our region’s future is much brighter because we know who we are and we are better equipped to tell our unique and distinct story!"
- Dee Baird, President and CEO, Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, Corridor Business Alliance

"The strong relationships that have developed among the public and private sector as a result of the branding process and brand will help the area grow, prosper and create additional employment. We will now start thinking of each other when we embark on new business initiatives. We will know what each of us is working on . . . There are so many other public-private initiatives that can take place now.”
- Nancy Quellhorst, President and CEO, Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, Corridor Business Alliance