Design > Street Banners
Every piece I do has got to work its ass off, and the street banners for Downtown Mooresville were no exception. With street banners, you don’t have a lot of room. And it’s outdoor, so your copy’s gotta be super brief. Which made this an excellent challenge to support our Downtown message: It’s Happening Downtown. I’ve told you about all the events the Downtown Commission created to pull in traffic, but we also had to prove this wasn’t all about events. Downtown looked empty when I started working on it. There were BIG gaps between open businesses. Lot’s of newspaper covered windows, know what I mean? We really needed to promote the events, but also the business that were already there. And there were quite a few of them (you just couldn’t really tell). And that’s why I did what I did on these banners. I listed all the types of shops and services that were ready and available right this second. It didn’t hurt that Main Street is also Highway 152. So a lot of traffic is coming from somewhere else, going somewhere else. But what a great message for passers by, either on foot or in cars. Downtown actually has a lot to offer.
FINAL: The first round of street banner I did for Downtown Mooresville told a story up and down the street – Downtown is full of business!
COMPS: This is an idea we presented for the second round of banners, when occupancy was WAY up and people knew there was fan to be had in Downtown Mooresville. In fact, we even had a joke campaign that mostly complained how there wasn’t any parking available Downtown.
FINAL: In the end we went with more festive, shorter messaging to reinforce the things you could do (and probably are already doing) while you’re Downtown.
After a while it was time for a refresher. Downtown had blossomed. In fact, things were booming everywhere in Mooresville. And that meant competition. Now, I’ve told you about the situation with Lake Norman. Well all those Mooresville shopping mall / apartment complex combos butting up against all those Best Buys and Applebees were vying to become the lake-side’s version of Downtown Mooresville. And, I kid you not, one giant development, just one exit down the I77, had plans to rename their micro-city from Langtree at the Lake to...wait for it...Downtown Mooresville. Ehem, but fuck them. Needless to say, that didn’t go far. But we did see the need to claim our rightful ownership of being the Heart of Downtown Mooresville. And so we did. :-)
DAVE SOPP – Creative
Yep, that’s me. I’ve got over 20 years of marketing strategy, graphic design, advertising art direction, and illustration experience. Want to use some of it? Email me at dave@davesopp.com
