Image borrowed from Logobird, the London-based design firm from which the neighborhood branding idea reportedly originated.
Central Track is a visually pleasing local website that was not on my radar before one of my Lake Highlands neighbors shared the “Dallas Neighborhood Project” announcement on Facebook.
Central Track’s Dallas Neighborhood Project, according to the creators, is a collaboration with talented local graphic designer Alexander Flores to create a logo each for “12 of Dallas’ most prominent neighborhoods (plus the catch-all directions of North, South, East and West)”.
Noted by my fellow LH-ers, Lake Highlands is not one of said prominent regions. And as for those “catch-all directions”, well, you would really need to cast a “Northeast Dallas” net to catch us.
I think the author of the Dallas Neighborhood Project gives himself and the project founders a little excess credit when explaining how unique they are in realizing that “Dallas is not a singular entity, an enormous amorphous blob” but that rather it is our city’s “many charming neighborhoods that make up this city’s identity and provide it with its flavor”.
Sure this is true. But I don’t know many locals proclaiming the former (maybe our mayors and/or World-class-city chasers, but not the majority).
For years we here at the Advocate have witnessed readers’ wrath should a one us accidentally refer to Vickery Meadow as a Lake Highlands neighborhood, or split hairs endlessly over whether north-of-635 is Lake Highlands or if it is possible for a Berkner student to be a Lake Highlands resident or if Old Lake Highlands is Lake Highlands at all. Hell, we dedicated a cover story to analyzing who and what can rightfully claim Lake Highlands as home.
Point is, people have, for as long as I have been in the biz, cared deeply about their neighborhood’s identity, image and reputation. Dallasites have known for a long time that where you choose to live within the city says a lot more about you than where you grew up, what college you went to or what sports team you support.
Central Track’s assessment is true and its reason for creating logos for each neighborhood, “celebrating Dallas’ neighborhoods”, is one of the reasons Rick Wamre (decades ago) started the processes of creating several different Advocate magazines, all with different personalities, to serve the individual needs of the city’s different neighborhoods.
As for the design element, our magazines all look essentially the same on the cover, even if the content is highly individualized. This Neighborhood Project kind of makes me consider the possibility of having a different look for each of our hoods, which would of course be a nightmare for our single full-time graphic designer, but hmmm. It would be fun. Looking for some volunteer work Mr. Flores? OK, not likely, I know.
Anyway, the artist who did Central Track’s neighborhood logos, which, aesthetically, I really like, says he gets the inspiration for each from how each neighborhood feels to him: “Overall, each one of them comes from an origin of either the heritage, the inherent style of the neighborhood’s residents or a predominant characteristic/landmark that originates from the geography of the neighborhood itself.”
While there is no Lake Highlands logo/brand yet, there is White Rock, which might suffice for some of us. Is Lake Highlands too lacking in cool for its own logo? Too many low-income apartments? Is it because our Town Center is mostly just a dusty moonscape save the construction of more apartments? And if Lake Highlands had a logo, what would it look like? Could we work in the LHHS press box without getting to tacky? Perhaps the Lake Highlands Branding Committee is working on something?
