The opportunity

The City of Escondido has embarked on early outreach activities for the Escondido Creek Trail project, a long-awaited project that will revitalize an existing six miles of walking and bike pathways in the heart of the City of Escondido, between Citracado Parkway and El Norte Parkway.

One of the main project goals was to establish a brand that would promote a sense of connectivity for businesses and communities neighboring the pathway. The challenge with the original Creek Trail project branding is that it wasn’t reflective of the natural landscape, showing more creek than trail, and emitted a natural park feel that wasn’t reflective of the project. The City of Escondido engaged JPW in June 2023 to develop a redesigned creative concept and cohesive design for all outreach materials.

The approach

The first step included initial research to understand stakeholder knowledge, involving qualitative and quantitative measures to inform strategy development. The JPW team proceeded with the following steps: 

• Held early outreach meetings with the project team to test messages and develop targeted stakeholder lists. 

• Conducted a site visit to assess the Creek Trail's current state and gather environmental insights.

• Met with city staff and analyzed census data to gain valuable cultural insight for the Creek Trail Vision. 

Using the insights from the research phase, the following key messages were developed to help shape the concept vision:   

• The Creek Trail connects us.  

• The Escondido Creek is urban with a commuter trail.   

• Our urban trail will integrate nature, beauty and art wherever possible.  

• This is a shared space for Escondido to grow into as a community.  

• The new Creek Trail design will be integrated with city architecture and culture, creating a new staple community attraction.  

The resulting brand vision was crafted to feel community oriented, inclusive, creative, artistic and welcoming. To achieve this, JPW outlined the following tones for implementation:  

• Inspired - We want the community and businesses to feel inspired to interact with the Creek Trail and park space.  

• Safe - We want the community to feel safe and protected within the Creek Trail and park space.   

• Immersed - Though not a national park, we want residents and community members to feel immersed in nature while using the Creek Trail and park space.   

• Proud - When residents and businesses see the brand, we want them to feel a sense of pride and a connection with the brand’s style that it is reflective of the city’s history and culture. 
  

The solution

• Designed logo that pulls from the city’s iconic city hall building, archway signs and art deco style seen throughout the community, which provides continuity throughout the city. It weaves traditional art deco typography and motifs with Hispanic-inspired stylings to create a mark full of character and meaning.

• Designed traditional art deco font used for “Escondido” and customized letterforms in the same style to create the words “Creek Trail.” The custom lettering amps up the recreational feel, alluding to the workout areas and other recreational opportunities that will be integrated along the trail.

• Incorporated symbolic imagery that gives this mark deeper significance. The zig-zag lines beneath “Creek Trail” represent the creek waterway, while the California native poppy at the top ties to the city’s efforts to beautify the existing landscape. The traditional art deco winding geometric lines around the poppy represent the trail acting as a tie weaving through the community and the trail’s utility for transportation.

• Introduced a color palette and font that embodies the urban nature of the creek itself, taking inspiration from existing architecture and regional stones.