Innovative Advertising partnered with City Park for a complete brand makeover

When you think of New Orleans City Park, so many things come to mind. For 170 years, this park has provided luscious green space for play and leisure, scenic waterways for fishing and romantic gondola rides. There are also opportunities to explore and learn through the Park’s different museums and visitors can even indulge in ordering warm beignets and a cup of cafe au lait at the famed Cafe Du Monde.

For such a famous urban park that has been around for over a century, it was time for a refresh when it came to the Park’s brand identity and overall voice. At Innovative Advertising (Innovative), this was an opportunity for our incredible, award-winning team of brand designers and marketing strategists to revitalize and portray the brand in a way that supports the mission of today’s Park.

Rebranding takes on many forms and is a long process that involves both parties (client and agency) to really take a step back and consider the audience, the organization’s mission, its values, tonality, legacy and even take a look at its competitors. That’s why we’re breaking down our process that visually transformed New Orleans City Park’s identity.

The Why

First, Innovative conducted a Brand Boot Camp, a propriety service aimed at uncovering an organization’s raison d’etre, or its “why.” Once uncovered for City Park, Innovative considered what best represented the park’s brand to help illuminate what it stands for. Collaboration and thoughtful consideration went into this process, which allowed Innovative to design a series of mood boards, providing the Park with options on how to visually express its why. City Park then chose which mood board aligned best with its reimagined identity.

The Look & Feel

With a clear direction in place, the fun began. Marketing research and design elements were in full swing. Deliverables like a new logo, color palette, font types and more all were formulated to establish the new brand look. This, along with photography treatment, iconography and other illustrations provided key visual cues that helped bring the new story of the park to life in an engaging way.

The new logo features a large live oak tree with flowing water underneath it, promoting the importance of the park’s natural habitat and beauty. You’ll also note the earthy tones used as the color scheme helps showcase the plants and ecosystems that are preserved within the park while evoking its rich and storied history.

Another important element of a rebrand is the brand voice. For City Park, this was also formed after engaging in a close relationship with the Park’s leadership team through our Brand Boot Camp. The voice is open and accepting to those who want to visit the park from all walks of life. Inclusivity and a promise to provide lifetime memories for visitors for years to come are some of the new pillars of the Park that Innovative incorporated into its voice.

The Culture

Thoughtfully rolling out a brand’s new identity and all of its associated elements to the organization’s employees and other affiliates ensures all stakeholders speak the same lingo, allowing each person to really connect with the re-envisioned brand. The internal rollout helped City Park share the background knowledge that led to the formation of the new brand, as well as the keywords to be used to properly convey the new brand’s message to park patrons and visitors.

The Website

A website redesign is an incredible undertaking. Innovative made the website user-friendly, focusing on a mobile-first perspective, and designed an aesthetically pleasing layout. Discovering what City Park had in mind for a new site and taking that into a planning phase helped our team develop a rebranded, easy-to-navigate and search-friendly website. The site development came with testing, tuning and discovering the best possible layout and functionality desired by both the the City Park team and park visitors.

Visit the website here.

City Park Conservancy, a newly formed 501c3 nonprofit organization, now has an incredible new look and feel to match its extraordinary plans to offer better services to the community. Innovative Advertising is pleased to have been chosen for this total rebrand that helped transform City Park with cutting-edge website design and development, as well as the new look and voice.