Old Town New Look
Downtown Oregon City unveiled designs for its official logo last week. Each logo highlights the historic character of downtown Oregon City while conveying a modern approach to economic, community and cultural development. The public is invited to vote on their favorite logo by sending an email with their favorite logo: A, B or C along with their name and phone number by sending an email to rsvp.downtown.oregoncity@gmail.com. The logo with the most votes will be further developed and then used as a branding tool by Main Street Oregon City, the organization tasked with leading the commercial, cultural and community development initiatives in downtown Oregon City. One entry will also be selected to have lunch with Lloyd Purdy, Oregon City’s new Downtown Manager. “It’s time to focus attention on downtown Oregon City,” said Lloyd Purdy, Downtown Manager for Main Street Oregon City. “We use a grass-roots approach to downtown develop. Selecting the logo and visual identity of downtown Oregon City should be an opportunity for area residents to get involved.” Main Street Oregon City will also unveil the three versions of the logo at various locations throughout downtown Oregon City. Downtown visitors are welcome to vote on their favorite design by dropping their business card into a collection can at Coffee Rush, 900 Main Street in downtown Oregon City or at Mi Famiglia, 701 Main Street, downtown Oregon City. Downtown Oregon City creative firm BDC advertising, 706 Main Street, developed about a dozen concept logos for Main Street Oregon City’s promotions committee to choose from. That group narrowed the field down to three and then decided to invite downtown visitors to vote for their favorite. “The integration of Downtown Oregon City’s rich history and scenic beauty portrayed in the logo combine to welcome people to our door step.” said Melodi Dugan partner of BDC Advertising, a creative firm in downtown Oregon City. “It is challenging to create a visual image that captures the true diversity of Downtown Oregon city, but we welcomed the opportunity.” While all of the logos build upon a unique characteristic or feature of downtown Oregon City, they each have a distinct context and feel. Downtown visitors are invite to vote for their favorite logo throughout the month of March. At the end of the month, Main Street Oregon City will select the final logo. “Each image shows a unique part of downtown Oregon City,” said Main Street Oregon City Promotions Committee co-chair Lynda Orzen. “It will be a very close contest and a true challenge for the community to pick a favorite.” Any logo vote submitted through rsvp.downtown.oregoncity@gmail.com before April 30th will be counted.
Snowballs In The Dead Of Summer
It’s starting to snowball…in one short (and frenetically fast) month we’ve lined up a litany of meetings, landed several nice opportunities and found business lurking in areas you only find by starting the journey we’ve been on. One networking friend figured it out in radio through “stimulus dollars” that local governments were landing. “They need to let people know what’s going on with the money they’re getting”, he started. “Radio’s the perfect tool in this area…everyone listens to it and our station is the one that’s listened to most — it’s the perfect medium to let people know how and where the money’s being spent.” This friend made his annual sales goal (their fiscal ends in July) by the end of February…he’s a hero in his company. One of the radio stations here in town talked about how a contractor was close to under and in the 9th inning with two outs and only a breath of business life left found some “stimulus” business through GoOregon, a government inspired effort that’s dispersing projects. That opportunity saved the business. That got us thinking as well as we began mining for suitable RFP’s. We found several, but the operative word here, “suitable”, stymied some of our efforts. Still, we’ve found a few that fit nicely and we’re chasing. So now, the marketing of our advertising business consists of an online advertising program, networking, social networking, cold-calling, responding to help wanted ads with our “the marketing director you’ve always wanted” approach and RFP’s. Business is as slow as you allow it to be. It’s there, you have to look for it, find it, chase it, get it in a headlock and don’t let it go. It’s a different world today than it was a year or two ago. It’s forced us to work harder, smarter, more efficiently and watch our bottom line and our client’s bottom line like a hawk. Conversely, other business owners and managers are so gut shot they’re just numb. Afraid to do anything they’re just waiting and hoping this is just a bad dream they’re going to wake up from soon. It’s not, it’s reality, pinch yourself…it hurts. Action creates action, doing nothing achieves nothing. As one business owner admitted, “I just don’t want to work that hard anymore.” Well?