Our Biggest Ever

The brief: An empty field.
A long gone ranch from the turn of the last century.
No built context; just retail juggernauts and corporate chains. Little to hold onto, in terms of poetics or inspiration. 

Through the BWM Group in Round Rock, FÖDA Studio was retained to develop the brand as well as design wayfinding concepts for this new development in Cedar Park, Texas. We sought to retain and inject a historical heritage into the program, even if grounded in a more general, regional context. We also wanted to develop a brand that was at once modern but also agrarian ad-hoc, creating wayfinding devices that would be unmistakeable. This approach would tie to the architectural brief we were obliged to match as well.

Strip malls suck. Let’s be honest about that. Endeavor’s town square concept for 1890 R externalizes the mall or strip concept, and is a refreshing return to a level of urbanism. It’s not new, but it’s the first of it’s kind in this part of Texas. The brand then must express reasons for keeping the name of the site, retention of the environment, and the change in the type of experience this is for those shopping the stores, drinking coffee, or catching a flick.

There are three critical questions we ask of our clients, but Endeavor came to us with answers:
What’s the promise? A ‘south west’ town square experience.
How is that different? All others are indoor, strip mall, generic, or decentralized and non-pedestrian.
Why does that difference matter? Because people crave human interaction and a place to witness the play of life. Because unscheduled and unprogrammed pedestrian spaces generate drama and exchange. Because well planned exterior spaces encourage walking and shopping in a single locale rather than driving to a dozen disparate locations. The benefits are too numerous to list.

In the research phase of the project, we assembled a compendium of ephemera and historic imagery from the 1890’s. In order to stay clear of cliché or the wrong art cues, we put a conceptual rule in place. Everything should stem from what a cattle rancher would do or create on their spread. Simple materials, practical and obvious joinery, references to the original act of branding (“this is Texas, even the cattle have good brands”), and a willingness to repurpose materials. The rule existed outside of a nostalgia for historicism, but could include it.

Our simple execution of type and the addition of a ‘cattle-tag’ sub-brand fit the bill, and they were then slightly attenuated so as to keep a hand made feel in place without relying on ‘aging’ the logo. Many iterations were created in order to arrive at this simple type set.

The pylons were intended to be constructed from ad-hoc materials, as though a grain silo or water tower had been taken apart and reused. No such materials were on site, but culvert pipe and rusted cor-ten steel did make their way into the project. Alas, discarded corrugate and salvage yard steel tubing was waived off. Two 42’ pylons were completed, as well as one monument and several smaller directionals.

The completed package won an internal award from Target™ for the best sign package in their store chain (or something to that effect, we’ve actually never seen said award).

Client: BWM Group for Endeavor
Design Team: Jett Butler and JR Crosby