Fortune favors the bold, and the bold takes root in San Jose.

CHALLENGE

San Jose has grown rapidly. It’s now the 10th largest city in the U.S., thanks in part to the economic juggernaut that is Silicon Valley. But it lacked one thing: a true identity that residents could rally around.

San Jose lived in the shadow of San Francisco, and even the well-known and well-named Silicon Valley was overshadowing the city.

But the winds of change and future momentum were already underway. A unified identity would help city pride keep pace with San Jose’s next wave of entrepreneurship, urban growth and culture.

Solution

The Office of Economic Development selected Native Digital from a nationwide search of firms. Our first step was to turn the process upside down. Rather than launch a new brand to the rest of the world and let residents find out last, we started at home. We listened before we spoke. We built our core strength before expanding beyond the city’s borders.

With buy-in on the process, we began interviewing local tastemakers, artists, business leaders and entrepreneurs to understand how they see San Jose.

Though our diverse interview set had varied opinions and perspectives of their city, we did find one commonality accepted by all: San Jose was a place you could make a name for yourself. If you wanted to start something, it was a great place to do it. The fact it was the last major U.S. city to fully establish itself and solidify its urban core wasn’t a negative. It was a rare opportunity. The creators, urban pioneers, and entrepreneurs saw San Jose as the perfect place to build their practice, businesses and lives.

BRAND IDENTITY

The team at Native established the personality and voice that was unique to San Jose, and then created a visual identity system based on input from the city’s environment and people.

GRASSROOTS DEPLOYMENT

Following our original plan, we gathered input from residents along the way. We first unveiled the identity mark itself at a live screen-printing event along with a few mantra statements. We took notice of who purchased each shirt and asked why, generating valuable feedback for future considerations.

T-shirts and stickers continued to be a good test. People don’t rep apparel or stickers for things they don’t care about.

As we saw traction with the new voice and identity we continued our rollout with a poster series, downtown signage and many other grassroots touchpoints.