MOORESVILLE, N.C.,None — Motorists converging on the intersection of U.S. 21 and West Wilson Avenue in Mooresville are noticing that the long-standing Mooresville entrance sign has a new look.
The large brick sign now contains the town's redesigned logo, along with prominent wording and arrows pointing to the "Lake District" and "Historic Downtown."
Wording that long has designated Hockenheim, Germany, as Mooresville's Sister City is gone.
"It's not that we're disowning (Hockenheim)," said Mooresville Planning Director Tim Brown. "That graphic … was not an integral part of the new sign's ‘wayfinding' elements.
"There may be the possibility of a freestanding sign with that on it later."
The sign renovation is the first step in implementing a "wayfinding" sign program in Mooresville through "Project Splash" an initiative of the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corp., Davidson design firm owner Buzz Bizzell, and town government.
"It took a collaboration of efforts to get us to this point," said Brown. "We really needed a sign program that was clean and distinctive."
Last year, Bizzell said the goal of "Project Splash" was to "improve the identity and position of the city of Mooresville's overall visual marketing approach" utilizing suggestions made in the Mount Mourne Small Area Plan and the Angelou Economics Comprehensive Study.
He added, "The Project Splash team felt the need to establish a unified look that runs through the various marketing and community development and business development agencies." Bizzell also provided visual representations and examples of ideal locations for signage Mooresville could utilize throughout town for businesses and "wayfinding."
"They're very uniformed and attractive directional signs," said Brown. "We had logos before to brand the community but no unifying branding elements on the logos."
Added Sara Tice, chair person for Project Splash, "as Mooresville continued to grow, different entities within the town were using different logos. To newcomers and visitors, this was confusing."
A committee was appointed to work with the different entities within the town to see if a common theme could be worked out to craft a ‘branding' that would be acceptable to each of these entities.
"We wanted to recognize the lake area and pick something unique to our region that gives direction distinctively and show that there is more to do in the community and get away from branding exits," said Brown. "It give us a positive ring and new sense of identity. We don't want to be identified as a community revolved around interchanges.
As a result, the Town of Mooresville adopted a new logo that more clearly identifies the town as it is today. New logos were designed by Michael Haire of the Langtree Group for the MSIEDC, and the MSI Chamber of Commerce that incorporated the features of the new town logo and both the economic development corp. and the chamber adopted these new logos.
Included on the committee were representatives from the town board, the MSI-EDC, the CVB, Mooresville Downtown Commission, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Mooresville Developers Council.
"The cooperation between the different entities has been great," said Tice. "Later, we realized that we needed to include the Mooresville Beautification Committee and the Historical Society."
The Beautification Committee had funds from the town to improve the signage at the corner of Hwy. 2l and Brawley School Road. Improvements to the signage north of town on Hwy. l50 and Hwy. l52 began last week and should be completed by the end of June.
"To advance the concept for the wayfinding program the town board endorsed the work enabling the town to finalize the design of the program and implement the first phase of renovating these two signs," said Brown. "It's really a superb initiative from developers council that really made this happen."
The Beautification Committee also adopted the same design created by the Project Splash Committee to comply with the design to be used on new signage to be erected along the I-77 interchanges.
"It's an identity type package with intent to have them at boundaries," said Commissioner Mitch Abraham, who was a member of the final planning committee for Project Splash. "It's a total encompassing sign package that will guide newcomers to Mooresville. It will be a great package to guide visitors and residents around Mooresville quickly."
Abraham also said the signs will be placed at different areas and boundaries such as shopping districts, and business parks and all signs will bear the town logo.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "They'll be great markers for us."
Karen Shore, who was also a member of the planning committee, said the signs will be a ‘great facelift.'
"I'm very proud to be apart of that whole collaborative initiative that brought all of the economic commission and town councils together," she said. The new signage to appear with new logos is really a tangible piece that is coming out of it, and we're now seeing the tangible result of that collaborative effort."
Adding, "the gradual phase with the gateways along the interstate and the directional signage in the different districts will be nicely marked and let folks know they have arrived in Mooresville."
A strong gateway welcoming individuals into town was another element presented by Bizzell, who mentioned that I-77's exit 31 would provide the best location for a formal gateway "because of the fresh, pristine location and ease to downtown."
The design and the colors for the interstate signs have been decided and this information was presented to the Mooresville Town Board for their approval and funding to be approved in the 20ll-2012 Budget. Funding was requested for the next two years to improve the program starting in the upcoming budget cycle.
During year one, two interstate signs have been proposed along with 20 wayfinding signs costing around $71,200. For the second year eight corporate limit signs have been proposed estimating around $21,600. The proposal however, does not include the 25-30 ft. gateway sign at exit 31 which is estimated to cost around $71,000.
Brown said the town is now in process of getting permits for the program with the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
"The state of North Carolina has guidelines and certain requirements we must meet and are now soliciting a review of the sign package to make sure it is in compliance with their standards," he said.
[ Click here to read the full story from Channel 9's newspaper partner, the Mooresville Tribune. ]