San Pedro gets a nautical logo
Business Improvement District commissions design that will be seen in new marketing material
From trolleys to store windows, social media and way-finder signs, visitors to San Pedro will soon see a new nautical-themed hometown logo.
The town's new brand logo recently debuted after six months of work and consultation by the Business Improvement District and the Bruxton Group.
It shows a turquoise anchor and the words “Discover San Pedro — Downtown Waterfront — Est. 1888” in shades designed to evoke the ocean and Pacific coast sunrises and sunsets.
The logo, said BID President Tim McOsker, is meant to illustrate “a mix of new and old, contemporary and authentic.”
It all coincides with a BID launch of a summer adverting and social media campaign to promote the downtown district as the broader economy opens up in a post-pandemic celebration, including a July 1 event featuring music.
The state and LosAngeles County largely lifted coronavirus-related restrictions on Tuesday.
The BID's effort will welcome back visitors and diners, who now have new outdoor dining platforms, courtesy of the improvement district and an added push by the city to help accommodate businesses during the pandemic.
The branding process wasn't quick — or particularly easy, although there was overall agreement on the final design.
It replaces a diamondshaped, busier logo that had been used by the BID in more recent years.
“A community should always be redefining itself,” McOsker said. “When I was a kid, we had ‘A Whale of a Town.'”
Cleaner images seem to work better in the digital age, he said.
The BID district, which collects assessments from property owners to use for improvements, security upgrades and promotions in the area, takes in the historic downtown San Pedro shopping district and extends to parts of the nearby adjacent waterfront.
The $40,000 rebranding project was put into the BID budget prior to the pandemic, with the work beginning with the effort to find and hire a consultant.
“We really kept an open mind,” McOsker said of the design. “We did some initial brainstorming and decided it was significant to capture the past of the district and to capture some of the future.
“It was a really good, deliberative process,” he added, with a resulting logo that “captures and honors our past with the historic waterfront and colorfully embraces a bold future.”
The logo will be used for advertising and promotions, on a new website — discoversanpedro.org — that also debuts this week, on social media, on the trolleys (set to begin operations later this month) and perhaps in store windows.
Bruxton's previous clients included recycleLA for the city of Los Angeles and California State Los Angeles.
Bruxton founder Cory Grabow said the assignment presented designers with a “prime example of a place with a strong heritage becoming a beacon of light for new patrons and business alike.”
In a news release from the BID, the new logo was described as a refreshed look that blends a future image of “urban and coastal.”