We recently had the opportunity to take things offline with our client, the Eastern Market Main Street in Washington, DC. While it’s wonderful to see the recent growth in small businesses in DC– and in new destination neighborhoods such as Union Market and Shaw–Eastern Market Main Streets wants to make sure their neighborhood stays ahead of the game and remains a thriving small business community in DC. We worked with them to refresh their brand in a way that would that would put their business district back on the map— and we ended up doing that, quite literally.

Whether you are local to DC or just visiting for the first time, you may know about Eastern Market’s open-air market, but you might not know about the myriad ‘mom and pop’ shops that line the streets of the neighborhood. As part of the branding process, we created a printed brochure with a detailed map of the Eastern Market neighborhood. The idea here was to give new visitors and neighborhood explorers a road map to explore the neighborhood in a way that would highlight its namesake market, as well as introduce them to the other businesses that make the community so vibrant. At a time when you can use your smartphone to google “nearest sushi restaurant,” a printed map creates a lasting, tangible connection to less expected pathways in the visitor’s walking experience.

Other key points of the printed design included calling out the history of the neighborhood as well as strategic use of original icons to bring character and a little hipness to the brand. 

We may have clients all over the country, but this project was particularly fun to dive into because Eastern Market lies just a stone’s throw from our studio here in DC! We love doing work with our DC community, especially when we’re working with our neighbors to make deeper connections to their communities around the city. If you’re in DC and want to work with us, hit us up!