When green|spaces set out to change the way that buildings are constructed in Chattanooga's downtown, the nonprofit project approached the project with design thinking front and center. Widgets & Stone and 26 Tools collaborated on the establishing the identity, then partnered with other talents (Ray Padron/Range Projects, Tubatomic, Haskell Sears) to design further projects.

The stated, measurable and achievable goals of green|spaces included enabling 20 LEED certified buildings in the downtown Chattanooga footprint within 3 years (a goal reached in even less time than that!), as well as helping 150 local contractors, designers and others to become LEED accredited professionals. For a city of Chattanooga's size and — unbelievably — total lack of LEED buildings this was an earth-shaking vision.

The challenge was to communicate the scope of the project's efforts, to its widely varied audiences. Contractors, architects and interior designers, commercial, building owners, City code inspectors and more needed to be connected with an incentive fund for commercial projects to be built green, certified sustainable and include high profile green features. And there was also a resource center for both commercial and residential projects, showcasing the best eco-friendly materials and methods available in the marketplace.

The brand also needed immediately to communicate the credibility and quality standards that it would uphold. A three year-timeline, after all, does not leave much time for building a reputation: green|spaces needed to bust out of the gates at top speed. The project's name emphasized the directors' belief that we do not need a sharp dividing line between urban park space (eco-beneficial) and buildings (eco-harmful) - that instead we want buildings that are green|spaces. 

The brand, likewise, called to mind collaboration, connectedness, and building blocks that — working together — build a greener good.

In their resource center, we wrote and designed information for the "pods" that founders Jeff and Anj designed to educate visitors about priorities in sustainable design and construction. The simple pods were also designed to be used for storage space as well as movable dividing screens for when the office holds large group presentations or small group charrettes (clever green|spacers).

Later on Widgets & Stone worked with Tubatomic to design a touchscreen kiosk. This was designed to provide virtual tours, resources, contractors and videos for green|spaces visitors. The kiosk is integrated with the web so that viewers can send resources via email.

Identity Design - Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Art Direction: Bradley Dicharry; Designers: Bradley Dicharry, Matt Greenwell, Joseph Shipp. 

 

Sign Design & Fabrication - Ray Padron/Range Projects

 

Kiosk Design - Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Grant Dotson; Interactive Design, Animation and Programming: Tubatomic; Photography: Grant Dotson; Physical construction of kiosk: Matt Greenwell.