Downtown Main Street unveils new logo, slogan
This story originally appeared in the Red Wing Republican Eagle (https://www.republicaneagle.com/news/downtown-main-street-unveils-new-logo-slogan/article_825e99c4-87de-11ef-abab-035b776652ca.html)
Downtown Red Wing unveiled a new logo and slogan this week. The logo features an overlapping D, R and W, designed to capture the spirit of the historic area of town. Its design may come as a surprise to both tourists and Red Wing locals, as it doesn’t feature the classic image of a red wing.
“We wanted it to feel different than any other logo in town,” said Andrea Hanson, owner of Phileo Style.
The new slogan, “Hand crafted, nature inspired,” draws on what makes Red Wing special. Locally made products, like Red Wing Shoes and the chocolates at the Red Wing Confectionery will drive shoppers, but many people will stay to enjoy Red Wing’s natural attractions.
“Whether it’s hiking the bluffs, mountain biking the bluffs, going on the river,” said Andrew Peterson of Red Wing Bicycle Company, “there are so many options for recreation.”
Hanson is the chair of Red Wing Downtown Main Street’s Business Development Committee. She and her fellow committee members agreed that downtown needed a new image. Jill Fanslow, owner of Tootsie Too’s felt a downtown logo was a long time coming.
“I have been involved with Downtown Main Street for 16 years,” she said, “and it has been talked about for 16 years.”
One of the big issues that downtown business owners faced over the years was promotion. Individual businesses could advertise all they wanted, but one business isn’t always enough to get someone from another town to visit. Peterson is glad that the new logo and slogan show “downtown as a collective,” so they can endorse visiting Red Wing, not just visiting individual restaurants and retailers.
As Hanson puts it, “We really, truly want to drive tourism to our downtown, and then it would also spillover into our parks and other areas of town to explore.”
So far, the business owners agree that the new branding is a success. Hanson described it as “a brand we can all stand behind.”
To bring this vision to life, the downtown business owners enlisted the help of Red Wing Downtown Main Street director Megan Tsui and Alan Schutte at Platt Hollow Road. Platt Hollow Road is a Hopkins “graphic design house specializing in visual storytelling.”
The collaboration started in February 2023, but knowing that this new branding would matter to a lot of stakeholders, Schutte couldn’t just design something right away. So last fall he met with business owners and community members to get a sense of what the perceptions of downtown Red Wing were, and what they wanted them to be.
Schutte found, and the business owners agreed, that a lot of people feared out-of-towners viewed Red Wing as “a sleepier destination.” So he made it his goal to make the logo feel “more current,” and show Red Wing has more than just the same old things visitors have seen and heard before. Hence the logo’s lack of a red wing.
The work won’t stop with just a new logo and slogan. Fanslow and Hanson have come up with some new merchandise featuring the logo. Sweatshirts, beanies, coffee mugs and magnets are just some of the items that will be available. Eventually there will also be coasters and keychains made of S.B. Foot leather.
The new merchandise will be sold at many downtown stores, including Tootsie Too’s, Phileo Style, Plum Crazy, Red Wing Bicycle Company, Mandy’s, Liberty’s and Simple Abundance.
