Middletown Springs, Vermont

Company or website name

Middletown Springs, Vermont

Slogan or Tagline

NOTE: we are not set on one; but concepts such as creativity and community are important. Feel free to include words, other than (or in addition to) our town name, with the logo.

Describe your company and organization and target audience

As we are working on the marketing aspect of the Middletown Springs Creative Economy project, we recognize that there will be opportunities to collectively promote the many creative assets of Middletown Springs, Vermont – including our artists, artisans, small-scale agriculture and other creative businesses – to people from away. This could be on a brochure, on a website, in an article, or on a product, just to name a few. When doing so, we want to have a consistent ‘image’ that we use. We would like the image to convey the Middletown Springs ‘vibe’; that tells the world that this is a creative community – a great place to visit, as well as a great place to live and work (and create).

We have 3 objectives for our marketing efforts: 1) to attract visitors to Middletown Springs, 2) to bring consumers to Middletown Springs' businesses (either in-person or virtually on-line), and 3) to attract potential new residents and/or creative businesses to town.

Middletown Springs is a small community located in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. It is home to many people who make their living in the arts and creative, entrepreneurial ventures - including painters, potters, woodturners, furniture makers, musicians, writers, and specialty food producers (to name a few).

Historically, the town was the shape of a gem/diamond and was formed by the ridgelines that surround it on all sides. (Recent changes to town lines have created some tweaks to the gem shape). Our picturesque town was officially founded in 1784 when citizens of the neighboring towns of Ira, Poultney, Wells, and Tinmouth Vermont petitioned to create a new town bounded by the ridges that prevented them from attending meetings and worship services in their original towns. Defined by the encircling mountains, Middletown Springs became one of Vermont’s uniquely shaped communities. At 23 square miles, it is slightly smaller than the average Vermont town, but boasts an enormous sense of community spirit and civic engagement. It is truly, in the words of one of our town’s prominent historians, a “gem in the hills.”

Over the years, our population has waxed and waned, and today about 750 residents make up our close-knit rural community. Our rich history as a resort destination with mineral springs (once-believed therapeutic) and a production center defined the original character of the town. The Mineral Springs Park, located adjacent to the meandering Poultney River and near the center of town, remains today.

Nearby lakes, rivers, and mountains offer plentiful opportunities for outdoor recreation. Our elementary school, public library, general store, and local eatery provide the perfect venues for casual chats and other activities, and our vibrant community hosts many visitors at our annual festivals and events including the Strawberry Festival, Maple Festival and Pie for Breakfast (to name a few).

There already are a few ‘symbols’ that convey different aspects of Middletown Springs – from our prominent sign on the town green that says “rest awhile with us” (and shows that we’re not far from anywhere), to the image of the Spring House on our town entry signs, to the phrase “a gem in the hills” used by Frances Krouse to describe this special place. However, as we set out to market our creative community and bolster our creative economy, we are looking for an image that we can use when promoting (collectively) our creative assets & creative businesses.

Here are links to a few sites and images from our town: http://middletownspringshistoricalsociety.org/historic_district.html
http://middletownsprings.vt.gov
http://www.peterhuntoon.com/?s=Middletown+Springs&s_cs=true (On Peter Huntoon's site, if you search for "Middletown Springs" you will see his paintings of our town. Peter lives in our town).

The design should have the following

We would like an image/logo that will convey the Middletown Springs "vibe", including an emphasis on creativity. We want it to be inviting, welcoming, vibrant and to create an emotional draw to this special place. We want it to be versatile in its use, whether to: attract visitors to our town, consumers to our creative businesses, and/or potential new residents/small (creative) businesses to locate here.

We are open to your ideas on whether (or not) it should also include words.

We want to be able to use this image in all sorts of ways when collectively promoting the creative businesses and products of Middletown Springs.

This logo will be used for

• Online (Website, facebook etc.)
• Print (business cards, letterheads, brochures etc.)

What style of logo would you like?

Colors to use in the design

Would like a logo design that does well in color, but that could also be used in black & white when needed for particular types of print materials.

For the selected design, we would like to receive both color and black & white versions for use our marketing materials.

Briefly describe your contest

Middletown Spring, Vermont - a creative place to visit, live and create