Art and Placemaking

The Branding + Placemaking Road Map outlines a bold vision for supporting a tangible mood shift in West St. Paul.

Project Goals:

• Boost Our Brand: Improve print and digital materials to be more engaging, fun, and unique.
• Invest in Place-Focused Projects: Through various projects of all shapes and sizes, work to create a visually appealing, welcoming, and unique community.
• All Hands on Deck Action: These efforts will be successful when everyone pitches in to make West St. Paul a better, stronger community. This could range from a resident planting a new front-yard flower garden to businesses sprucing up their facades, to an organization hosting a new festival. Even saying hello to strangers on the street!

The Roadmap:

1. Let Our Brand Lead Us: Utilize our new brand holistically and consistently (colors, fonts, logos, messaging) to help tell West St. Paul's story through written and visual collateral.
2. Crank Up the Weird: We know weird and unique resonate with the community. Create new programming and spaces that engage the community and embrace our quirky personality.
3. Leverage the City's Assets: If the city owns it, we have to make sure it's on-brand.
4. Get Creative with Events: Reimagine community events to infuse them with more local flavor and fun.
5. Getting WiSPy with It: Embrace a cast of characters - the WiSPs - that can act as West St. Paul's very own mascots.
6. Business with a Backstory: Much of West St. Paul's physical history has been lost. Utilize art, creativity, and installations to share our history - and create history.
7. Cultivate Connection: Incorporate ways for people to connect throughout the city in big and small ways. 
8. Ask For More: We need to be more confident and bold. Our community is growing, and with major infrastructure investments, this will continue. We have value and a unique position within the region, so we should lean into that and ask for what we want - partnership from the private sector in boosting quality design and amenities. 

Click the link to read the Brand Positioning and Branding+Placemaking Road Map.

• Fall 2024-Winter 2024-2025: City hires consultant All Together, and holds focus group listening sessions, conducts background research, and tours the city
• February-March 2025: Branding + Placemaking Road Map is developed, reviewed by Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee and City Council
• Spring 2025: City begins implementing new brand in slow roll-out, discusses development of new Arts Committee to guide efforts
• Summer 2025 and Beyond: Road Map implementation

Several focus groups were held to gauge the community's insights into its character, what makes the city unique, and the vision for making it even more special. The project team researched the city's unique history, and took into consideration feedback received at events, during planning processes, at City Council and commission meetings, and even social media conversations. 

General feedback included:

• Desire for a stronger 'sense of place' and community
• Celebrate our history, culture, and what makes West St. Paul different than other communities
• Better visual appeal, more charm, and less 'cookie cutter' design
• More independent and unique businesses
• Improve walkability and connection
• More art and creativity
• Improve civic pride
• Put West St. Paul 'on the map'
• Have more fun
• Create '3rd places'  for celebrations, gatherings, and to make new friends
• Improve city communications

If you have ideas on how we can foster a more creative, welcoming, and fun West St. Paul, please reach out. 

Funding for this project comes from the city's general operations, events/engagement, and capital improvement funds.

Do you have questions about this project? If so, please Email Eric Weiss, Director of Parks and Recreation, at eweiss@wspmn.gov, or Sarah Haugen, Communications and Grant Coordinator, at shaugen@wspmn.gov.