Written by Driving down High Street this weekend, I was thrilled to see a few new additions to the streetscape there: The first wave of our wayfinding signage initiative, designed to help residents and visitors better navigate the downtown business district.
It was great to see the physical signage out and about, after a few months of working through designs with our director of community and economic development, DPW superintendent, my fellow Selectman Marc Iacobucci, and other representatives from Town Hall and the business community. We think the signage is a scalable, incremental way to lead people around the downtown business district at a relatively low cost.
We tend to take High Street for granted in a lot of ways here, but it’s the kind of walkable, modular downtown that other towns would kill for. One problem with it’s location, however, is that someone could drive through Clinton every day on Main Street or Water Street and not know about all the food, shopping and entertainment options that sit just a block or two away. And, once they get here, they might not know where some things are or where there is plenty of free parking. That’s where the wayfinding project comes in.
Through a state grant, Clinton was paired with Favermann Design, the talented people behind countless other Massachusetts municipal branding projects, as well as the Fenway Park Centennial, the 1999 Ryder Cup, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and more. Over the course of several months, our group worked through possible design elements, colors and layouts to come up with something we think shows off Clinton in a way that’s different but not totally detached from our roots.
Future phases can expand on what we’ve begun and, along with other streetscape and lighting projects in the works, will go a long way toward showing the world that we take our downtown seriously.
Sean Kerrigan, Clinton Select Board 