D Street Village is the revival of a former country western saloon in Portland's Southeast district, a neighborhood landmark where Johnny Cash once played. The developer and architect brought me in to build a new identity that honored that history without getting precious about it: logo, architectural signage, posters, apparel, website, and online leasing tools.

The Work

Working as part of the creative team at Metropolitan Group, I helped thread a needle between legacy and livability. Too much nostalgia and it becomes a costume. Too little and you've thrown away the most interesting thing about the place. The solution lived in the details, a visual language that nodded to the building's past while feeling like it belonged to the neighborhood as it exists today. Scope covered logo, architectural signage, posters, apparel, website, and online leasing tools.

Takeaway

Years later I still drive by this one regularly, and every time I do the signage, facade, and wayfinding look as sharp as the day they went up. That kind of longevity is the real test of whether the creative decisions were right. I still make my partner look every time we pass it, which she tolerates with varying degrees of patience.