About

Work

Services

Insights

The Book

Contact

Unprecedented Community Research and Engagement

High Point has been shaped by the furniture industry, John Coltrane, High Point University, its context within the Piedmont Triad, and more recently by developments like Congdon Yards, professional sports teams and a renewed interest in downtown. With so much to share with North Carolina and beyond, our branding process brought all of High Point together to confidently tell its unique story to the world.

Our team solicited a wide range of feedback from City staff, residents, business owners, community leaders and nonprofit organizations across High Point. This unprecedented level of public input over the course of twelve months helped shape the brand.

Through this engagement, we learned that High Pointers passionately believe that the city is more than the furniture capital of the world. They recognize the value the furniture industry brings, but without a personal connection to it, many people did not see how they fit into the High Point story.

40

Interviews

10

Focus Groups

4

Different Week-long Community Visits

8

Engagement Pop-Ups

Celebrating the Creator in Everyone

The brand strategy revolves around acknowledging that creativity resides within everyone, and celebrating the fact that what’s created in High Point changes the world. While there are big things like John Coltrane and the city’s status as the global capital of the furniture industry, it’s the smaller contributions we all make — such as art, friendships, food, beer, families, and businesses — that are embodiments of creativity at its core.

This new perspective is helping residents realize their own creative potential and compelling outsiders to use High Point as a place to develop and showcase their ideas, all while pushing the furniture and design industry even more forward, helping to unite the community around its creativity.

Sub Brands

Central to our design system is the representation of High Point, both as a physical location and a metaphorical concept representing the convergence of creativity and collaboration that meet in High Point. This element of arriving at a point – Hight Point – is central to the new city flag design.  Additionally, while many city departments simply require a ‘brand house’ approach to department branding we identified a handful of departments that required a unique sub-brand. The flag design element emerged as the unifying motif, allowing each sub-brand to have its own unique logo while still weaving a common thread and creating a true brand system.

Social District

We developed a sub-brand for the social district, a designated area where patrons can carry alcoholic beverages in approved containers. This sub-brand integrates with the broader brand system while giving the social district a unique visual identity. The branding includes a specific mark that appears on all cups used within the district, ensuring compliance and easy identification. Additionally, signage reinforces the district’s boundaries, offering clear guidance and promoting a cohesive, recognizable experience that enhances the community’s vibrant social atmosphere.

We created a branding system for the various districts that extends the overall brand architecture’s flag/point concept, giving each district its own unique mark and color while maintaining a cohesive connection to the primary brand.

Made-In Brand

We developed a “Made-In” brand system that enables local makers and businesses to proudly incorporate a unique mark on their products and packaging, celebrating their origin in High Point.

Bringing the Brand to Life

We hosted a community celebration featuring the many different types of creators in High Point. A placemaking activation at the entrance of Truist Point Stadium included a new crosswalk mural and activities where residents of all ages could paint, eat, sing, dance, build, share how they express creativity, and plan ways to improve their own neighborhoods through similar activations.


Implementation

The 73-page implementation guide is a multi-year road map for implementing the High Point community brand. We developed the implementation plan based on four strategic focus areas and include recommendations that range from online applications to improvements in the built environment, and are prioritized by their performance against a wide variety of criteria. CivicBrand is now working with the City of High Point in an ongoing capacity to manage brand implementation.

The City of High Point made it our goal to find the best possible partner to assist us in our branding project. CivicBrand immediately blew away the competition with their knowledge of local governments, their approach to reaching our diverse community and vision to guide us throughout our storytelling process.

Ryan Ferguson, Marketing Manager at
City of High Point

Project Documentary

A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Entire Branding Process
Bring a Branding Workshop to Your Town
Learn More

|
Research
|
Brand System
|
Sub Brands
|
Social District
|
District branding
|
Made-In Brand
|
Activation
|
Implementation
|
Documentary
|
Awards

share this page