Community + Collaboration = CoSign

11.18.12 Update:  The signs are done and being installed this week. Join us for the unveiling on Black Friday – which in Northside is Shop Local Day. Can’t be there? Don’t want to wait? Preview the signs in last week’s Business Courier Article.

The American Sign Museum is proud to be a part of its community. We are especially proud to be a part of the CoSign project currently underway. CoSign is bringing together local artists and businesses to educate them on the value of signs – and what makes a good sign – along with fabricators who will help create new signage for 10 businesses in the Northside community of Cincinnati. Below is an excerpt from Soapbox Media, July 17, 2012, that explains it, followed by an update on progress to date.

While you never get a second chance to make a first impression, sometimes you do get a second chance at funding an innovative project that could transform a community, beginning with its storefronts.

The CoSign project is just that. What started as a broader grant application to ArtPlace America for several city neighborhoods became more personal for Northsiders after the city-wide application went unfunded.

Undaunted, partners in Northside and the American Sign Museum, with funding from the Haile/US Bank Foundation, are moving ahead with the project. What better way to draw shoppers to Northside’s eclectic streetscape than creative, coordinated signage?

As part of CoSign, local businesses, visual artists from across Cincinnati and professional sign fabricators will design and install a critical mass of new signage along Hamilton Avenue, with an expected launch date of Nov. 23, this year’s Black Friday. CoSign will fund most of the costs for commissioning, permitting, fabricating and installing the signage. Eric Avner, vice president and senior program manager with the Haile/US Bank Foundation, explains the appeal of supporting business/artist collaborations. “We wanted to do multiple things at once,” Avner says. “Help the sign museum, help local business districts gain vitality; and give the creative sector of Cincinnati more opportunities to make a living.”

Northside’s business district and enthusiastic community support made it a logical pilot location.

As the primary grant recipient and fiscal sponsor, the American Sign Museum will provide content specialists by staffing two training workshops in August for artists and business owners. The project also pulls from the organizational talents of ArtWorks, which will help coordinate the artists and their work.

The museum will also assemble a judging panel to review and decide upon the best signage proposals from business/artist teams. The brand-new sign museum space at 1330 Monmouth Street will house the new signage before it is hung on Hamilton Avenue.

Little Things Labs, a social/cultural innovation idea laboratory that problem-solves with municipalities to create better places to live and work, is assisting the Haile Foundation with CoSign’s development. Josh McManus, lead inventor at the lab, sees the Sign Museum as an integral partner. “Our hope is not just 10 signs but a newfound attention to the benefits of great signage,” McManus says. “That’s why the American Sign Museum is such a perfect partner to work with on this project.”

CoSign will be documented so other communities can replicate it and broadcast their own creativity and collaborative spirit through signage.

9.8.12 ASM UPDATE: The CoSign Project began in earnest in June. Since then:
Northside businesses within a specified geographic area have been canvassed, and have applied to participate. At this time, 19 businesses are vying to be among the final 10 selected for new signs.

Artists have submitted their designs, and each business has made their selection

Business/Artist/Fabricator teams are currently finalizing their designs and details, which a team of judges will consider for inclusion in the final 10 signs to be fabricated and installed.

We are on target to unveil the new signs on November 23, Black Friday. Be sure to Like CoSign on Facebook and visit CoSign’s website to keep up with the project and other activities in the neighborhood.

CoSign II?

Last year, some very motivated community leaders, business owners, artists, fabricators, and financial backers came together to enhance a Cincinnati neighborhood’s business district with new signage. In the process, museum staff– most notably founder Tod Swormstedt– played a major role in educating these folks on the value of good signage, design, and the process of permitting, fabricating, installing, and celebrating signs. The project,  called CoSign, culminated with an unveiling and celebration of eleven new signs in the neighborhood of Northside, Cincinnati on Black Friday. See the signs and read about it here.

We are proud to have participated in the CoSign Pilot Project this past year and look forward to continuing what we started with another round in 2013. We are currently in the running for a grant through ArtPlace, an organization supporting exactly this kind of project. Keep your fingers crossed!