Distinguishing Chisago County With an Authentic, Cohesive Brand Foundation
The Client
Situated in east-central Minnesota, Chisago County is known for its natural beauty, cultural heritage, and small-town charm. Throughout the year, its 56,000 residents enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, local festivals, thriving businesses, and close proximity to the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
The Challenge
Over the years, the Chisago County brand had become fragmented and difficult to manage. While county leaders aspired to distinguish themselves from other communities, attract tourism and development, and unify government entities, they lacked a cohesive brand vision or guidelines. As a result, departments implemented the brand in different ways, which diminished the county’s image and failed to support their goals. To achieve their vision, they needed a new approach, so they brought in Olive & Company to clarify, unify, and revitalize their brand.
The Solution
We began our work by gathering perspectives about Chisago County during a discovery session with the brand committee team. To dig deeper, we then conducted a series of stakeholder interviews, which included a wide range of county employees, business owners, and area residents.
From this research, we developed a brand platform to serve as the strategic foundation for ongoing efforts. This platform defined their brand purpose, personality, key messages, and more.
With the strategy solidified, we turned our attention to the county’s visual brand. Using mood boards, we explored colors, patterns, and imagery, connecting creative themes to the newly established strategy. We then created logo and visual identity concepts before arriving at the final designs. To provide system flexibility and continuity, we also established department-specific components, which included logo lockups that aligned with the primary county logo, as well as specific iconography and brand colors assigned to each department. These components enabled departments to have their own identities without causing confusion or damage to the overall brand.
To ensure stakeholders could effectively use the new brand, we created a comprehensive brand guide and conducted review sessions to explain proper usage. We also developed letterhead, business card, and presentation templates to guide further implementation.
Ultimately, the branding process provided Chisago County with the tools to present themselves consistently and cohesively, supporting their goals of increasing residency, tourism, and business development while rallying their team around a new shared vision.
Project Highlights
- Facilitated multiple brand review sessions with the county management team and steering committee to build consensus and train stakeholders.
- Developed department-specific identity components to provide clarity, consistency, and scalability to the new identity system.
- Provided clear rationale throughout the process to connect strategy and design decisions to research findings and county objectives in order to mitigate subjective biases.
- Coordinated a series of stakeholder interviews to gather a wide range of perspectives from across the county.
- Designed a series of mood boards to explore color palettes, typography, patterns, iconography, and photography that accurately represented the county and brand.
Services Provided
- Brand Research
- Brand Strategy
- Messaging Development
- Mood Board Design
- Logo Design
- Visual Identity System Design
- Brand Guidelines Development
- Brand Templates Design
- Brand Training