CoSign

American Sign Museum

Funding Received: 2013
Cincinnati, OH
$200,000
Funding Period: 1 year and 5 months
Design & Architecture, Visual Arts | Economic Development | Urban
www.facebook.com/cosigncincy
www.twitter.com/cosigncincy
Back
August 2, 2013

Update

This has been a busy month for CoSign. We began recruiting Northside businesses to participate in the second round of CoSign in mid-June. Within two weeks we had an overwhelming amount of applications – a true testament to the reception of the first round of CoSign signs. Once we knew we had committed businesses, the CoSign team enlisted permitting and historic preservation experts to determine the city code and historic preservation requirements of each building hoping to participate. In order for the CoSign process to happen in such a quick timeframe, we must complete a lot of pre-work to ensure that each sign meets City requirements.

Simultaneously, CoSign is building momentum and excitement among the artist and design community. The goal is to see an increase in the amount of sign proposals this year. In mid-July, we will bring together the business owners and artists together for workshops to discuss next steps and begin design work.

Recent Wins

• 26 businesses in the Northside neighborhood have applied to participate in CoSign this fall. We are excited to see the economic development that will occur for the neighborhood with the new signage.

• Northside received positive press that discussed the community bridging its entire business district and the launch of CoSign is helping them revitalize the area and assist growth http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/070913northside.aspx

• The American Sign Museum participated in the Northside Fourth of July Parade with a float and a banner that read 10 more signs for Northside in order to actively engage in the community and drum up support.

Insight/Provocation

We were thrilled with the business response from the CoSign Neighborhood. While the business community in Northside is amazing – one thing that CoSign does is enlist local neighborhood champions. We chose a member of the business community to help recruit his peers. We believe that CoSign would not be as successful without that community buy-in and the fact that most local business owners are interacting with another member of the business association who knows the neighborhood firsthand.