North Union is an 8-acre, 3.5 million GSF mixed-use development in downtown Chicago encompassing eight residential high rises, retail/restaurant destinations, and two urban parks. Developer JDL came to Span with a name, a vision, and even a sketch of the logomark they wanted to use for the project.

The refined logo builds on the sketch based on the overall site plan for the property. Each project phase from south to north ”fills in” the missing lots defined by Chicago’s horizontal street grid. Custom letterforms based on FF Mark create a perfectly-balanced wordmark. The messaging concept behind “A Community Together” defines the development’s role of uniting the Old Town, River North, and Gold Coast neighborhoods.

Span also developed the brand strategy for each property as well as the website for the overall project. Since each of the properties would be marketed by their individual street addresses, five custom numeral sets were created, all drawn upon the same structure. This, combined with a shared approach to patterning, allows each individual property to speak individually while always pointing back to the same central vision of North Union.

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