NYC's Meatpacking District Is Now A Brand

In a couple of decades, New York City's Meatpacking District has gone from industrial to illicit to fiercely fashionable. Today it is home to Google, Diane von Furstenberg's flagship store, the new Renzo Piano-designed Whitney Museum, the southern terminus of the High Line (arguably the most influential public park in recent years), and any number of exclusive nightclubs. And now, it has a brand to match. The Meatpacking business improvement district enlisted Base Design to devise a visual identity that captures the neighborhood's transformation into a consumer and cultural mecca. Anchored by a wordmark that divides "Meatpacking District" into two different typefaces, it suggests a neighborhood with multiple personalities: equal parts ritzy and wild. Branding a place is not new. The Austin Independent Business Association adopted a slogan of Keep Austin Weird. Colorado adopted a new logo a couple years ago. Bruce Mau created Know Canada to shed light on the country's lesser-known attributes. When places organize around a brand, it's a strategy to cash in on the commodity of "location, location, location." Make it cool, get people to pass through, and buy a T-shirt while you're at it. (The Meatpacking rebranding includes merchandise, like T-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, water bottles, and notebooks.)

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All Images: via Base Design]

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