September 20, 2013 – Webster City – Twenty-three senior design students from Iowa State University will be in Webster City on Oct. 8 at 8:30 a.m. and will be partnered up with local small businesses to help improve the brand image of each business.
The Webster City Chamber of Commerce has been working with Professor Paula Curran and Susan Erickson, Place Coordinator at Iowa State University, to bring this project to Webster City.
“We’re pretty excited about this project. It’s an opportunity for our businesses to have a set of young, fresh eyes create a new design for their store fronts,” said Deb Brown, chamber director.
Each student will work with the business to analyze the existing store front and then design a new identity that will communicate a lively, contemporary message to current and potential customers, according to Brown. The students will consider how this new identity can be applied to signage, both on the storefront and perpendicular to it. The students will redesign the storefront to complete the new look, and apply the new identity to the store front. This is graphic design; they do not work with store interior.
Products expected from the class include two to five copies of a written and illustrated report and a pdf file. The report will include design proposals. Design proposals will include identity design, sign design and facade redevelopment suggestions. Webster City will be invited to view final presentations of student design proposals in early November, 2013.
“If you were to bring a professional in for this service the costs could range into several thousands of dollars. The cost for Chamber members is only $50. You are also investing into a student’s future career,” said Darcy Swon, inTandem Marketing
Brown said the Chamber has partnered with the city of Webster City to complete one vacant store front from beginning to end – from the design to the installation of the design – to show the community what kind of business could be in that storefront.
For more information visit www.visitwebstercityiowa.com/downtown-design-project.htm or contact the Chamber at 832-2564.
View the story as it originally appeared in the Daily Freeman Journal.