Ritzville unveils new branding

After months of waiting and planning, the first components of Ritzville’s new branding system were unveiled during the Aug. 9 Launch Harvest Party in Pioneer Plaza.

One of these components was the tagline “Harvest the Legacy,” which plays to the City of Ritzville’s agricultural heritage, as well as a united community working together.

Local organizations and entities, including the City of Ritzville, the Ritzville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Adams County Development Council (ACDC) and the Brand Steering Committee, spent the last year laying the groundwork for the branding.

The branding stemmed from last year’s Reviving Rural Downtown Workshop. One of the speakers, Ritzville native and the Kittitas Chamber of Commerce Tourism Director Amy McGuffin, gave a presentation on useful ways for communities to promote their towns. Keynote speaker, and Arnett Muldrow and Associates Principal, Tripp Muldrow presented a forum on how small communities across the U.S. brought visitors to Main Street. Muldrow, McGuffin and their respective teams helped develop the brand.

Public input for the branding was gathered through roundtable discussions and a public forum in April, which had over 100 participants.

“It highlights the culture and lifestyle of this town and all of the things that are important to us,” Mayor Gary Cook said of the branding.

During the presentation, McGuffin explained the purpose in developing the brand system is to unite Ritzville around a common image in order to build community pride while reinforcing the city’s history. The branding also creates an identity the city can extend to partner organizations. It also develops marketing pieces that promote the community and connect the dots between existing destinations and activities.

The system has a “branding toolbox” with colors, typefaces and icons that can be used over time for economic development and promotion. McGuffin said the primary typeface was selected to not keep the brand to “one particular look.” The sans serif font was selected as a secondary contemporary typeface that also relates to the ghost signs and roadside architecture yet is contemporary.

For the branding logo, the design team took wheat, a well known icon for the community, and simplified it to represent an idea. The five wheat sheaths on the logo represent the brand’s five core ideas: history, family, spirit, resources and movement. The branding’s color palette used traditional green and tan colors with accents from the architecture of downtown and around the neighborhoods.

One of the goals with the branding is to have local businesses and organizations use a logo similar to the city, but with modifications specific to those entities.

An example of this was the concept of a new logo for the Ritzville Downtown Development Association. The RDDA’s logo will have the same font as the city’s brand. Instead of a wheat sheath at the top, it will have a floret design incorporating the city’s color palette. The design was inspired by the florettes seen on the exterior of downtown buildings.

A second example was a logo for the Ritzville Water Park. The san serif typeface would be the same except it would be blue. Instead of a wheat sheath, the logo would be a water fountain.

A 3-minute video, produced by Genesis Marketing out of Spokane, was shown during the presentation. The short movie featured a voiceover from resident John Miller and used video and still photographs to highlight different aspects of the city. The video is posted on the Adams County Development Council’s website.

Another component revealed at the event was the Ritzville Insider mobile app. The app is based on 468 Communications’ 468 Insider platform.

When visitors come to Ritzville, the app displays pins of locations and information of various businesses and activities.

Through the app, locations around the city are assigned a point value.

App users earn points by pushing the “collect points,” button while visiting locations around Ritzville. Points can be accumulated and redeemed for goods or services at local businesses.

Concept art for banners was also revealed during the presentation. The banners would hang from light poles and feature the city’s wheat sheath logo and typeface.

There was also the discussion of replacing the city’s four entry signs. Each of the entry points would have new signage with the city’s name and logo.

Flyckt added the branding would potentially expand to development of advertising and marketing materials highlighting the stories of local residents and families.