CONVERGING PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Ever wonder how a city stays true to its history while keeping pace with the times?

What if that history, marked by visionaries and change-makers, is incredibly diverse and constantly evolving? SF Heritage is a nonprofit charged to preserve and enhance San Francisco’s unique architectural and cultural identity. For over 40 years they have helped to manage change over time by advocating for smart growth with the protection and reuse of historic structures and landscapes. With its outreach and educational programs, preservation projects, community celebrations, historical tours, venue rentals — and its latest initiative, “Legacy Bars and Restaurants,” which promotes the City’s most colorful and long-lived eateries — SF Heritage continues to be relevant and vibrant in a constantly changing community.

Yet its previous branding and identity focused on the past, appearing to be concerned with one period of architecture, and gave the impression the organization was out of step with what’s current and exciting in a city known for its progressiveness and energy. Time to evolve. San Francisco Architectural Heritage approached Chen Design Associates to develop new brand identities for SF Heritage (the new name), the Haas-Lilienthal House, and the “Legacy Bars and Restaurants” initiative — along with a unified business identity system, redesigned Heritage News, banners, signage and other collateral. Our challenge: attract a greater number of today’s San Franciscans while remaining firmly grounded in SF Heritage’s core values.

CONVERGING PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Ever wonder how a city stays true to its history while keeping pace with the times?

“San Francisco is the only city I can think of that can survive all the things you people are doing to it and still look beautiful.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

We stepped into the Victorian world of the Haas-Lilienthal House to meet with Heritage staff and board members, to understand their concerns and to facilitate priorities.

SF Heritage’s mission had evolved and expanded tremendously since the last update to its brand identity nearly 25 years ago. Changing the organization name and reinvigorating its brand and complete visual communications would be key components to more accurately reflect the diversity of its advocacy and education efforts, as well as to attract new members in previously untapped markets.

National and international trends in historic preservation are moving toward a more inclusive approach to historic and cultural resources, encapsulating both tangible and intangible forms of heritage (think: buildings only vs. built environments plus community celebrations). SF Heritage’s aim moving forward is to demonstrate commitment to the challenges of a 21st century urban environment and to underscore its willingness to evolve and adapt as the field progresses. Engaging CDA helped them to fortify their identity within the organization so that their outward communications would promote who they truly are and refute any public misperceptions hindering growth.

before: logo
before: member newsletter
before: house signage

What was their vision of success for the new brand?

The branding needed to reinforce the full range of SF Heritage’s mission—one that is relevant and dynamically aware of the interconnectedness of the city’s physical and cultural resources. It needed to appeal to new, younger and more diverse audiences while remaining true to SF Heritage’s history and authenticity of who they are as an organization.

Most important points to convey:

01: Convey SF Heritage’s commitment to positive change in the city’s diverse communities and neighborhoods
02: Communicate SF Heritage’s importance, engagement and action locally and in the national preservation dialogue

Archetypes

SFH-archetypes

Scope of Work

SFH-scope-1 SFH-scope-2

Our explorations

When appropriate, CDA’s creative team likes to push the boundaries in unexpected directions, and yet will only present what we believe will work and we can stand behind. Given the treasure trove of archival imagery SF Heritage has at its disposal, our designers were free to explore vintage photographs of local architecture, historically inspired typography, period signage and more. We explored multiple combinations along monogramming themes, references to form and space, playing with letterforms, blending in modern sensibilities, patterns, various color palettes—and applied the best ideas in various contexts at different scales needed.

SFH-logo_in-context

“The new logos are resonating with those who have no prior connection to San Francisco Heritage. Our recent event to announce the third round of inductees to our Legacy initiative was packed! It was an entirely new audience with some familiar faces, our desired effect.”

Mike Buhler, Executive Director, SF Heritage

Our Solution

CDA created a brand with intelligence and an understanding of the city‘s design history, without being fixed in the past. Each of the logos CDA developed conveys a sense of history and character that is unique to the city, gracefully expressing an intersection of eras and cultures and reinforcing the range of SF Heritage’s mission — one that is evolving and aware of the interconnectedness of the city’s physical and cultural resources.

SFH-HLH_logo_mug_bigger

Bold color and timeless typography honors history while looking forward with a reinvigorated, contemporary sensibility to express energy, dynamism and vitality. The new brand illustrates that there are many layers to San Francisco and the elevated design matches its audience’s appreciation for beauty and detail. Incorporating actual landmark imagery connects the viewer with the city’s tangible resources—its buildings, structures, and landscapes, as well as connoting intangible cultural resources—its festivals, businesses, and institutions.

In all communications there is now an attractive, exciting convergence of the past, present and future — one that is garnering attention from those who hadn’t taken notice of SF Heritage’s mission previously. As SF Heritage partners with other local, state and national entities critical to its mission, engagement with CDA is proving to be valuable as they gain members passionate to carry on the mission of shaping the San Francisco we all know and love.

“The new branding speaks volumes — that we are growing and evolving. Our work intrinsically looks to the past but our organization is also looking forward to the future. The perception of our entire organization has been transformed.”

Mike Buhler, Executive Director, SF Heritage