When you live in a city, you see change as an inevitable part of life: that falafel stand you loved so much turns into a Starbucks; a vacant lot gets turned into a community garden; paradise is paved to put up a parking lot. So, it’s rare and surprising when someone values the history that came before.
Only having been to Wicker Park a handful of times before coming to work at Sparkfactor, I haven’t gotten a chance to really take a look around my new neighborhood. So as crazy as it sounds, my current favorite place in Wicker Park is the Walgreens.
But it’s not the corporate cookie-cutter version of a Walgreens. No, not at all. The vaulted ceilings that greet you from the cylindrical vestibule lead your eyes up, to the stained glass rotunda. When your eyes finally come back down to the rest of the store, you notice the beauty section sitting with a bird’s eye view and escalators leading to the depths of the building. If you take those escalators down, you’ll be able to tell immediately what this building used to be: the Noel buy gabapentin 300mg capsules State Bank vault has been transformed into the Vitamin Vault. The natural light that emanates from the high windows when you resurface gives you an extra dose of vitamin D as you roam the shelves.
While I enjoy the building and what it houses, what I love is what this represents: someone decided to take the foundation of the past, the beautiful architecture, and keep it, instead of destroying it like so many others have done. Someone decided that despite not being exactly the same as all other corporate stores, they could use the old building as the foundation for creativity. Maybe it’s not so much about throwing out the brand guidelines as it is about rising above them.
Sparkfactor starts with brand history as the basis for our creative process: designing to inspire trust, admiration, and action. We look at heritage as a point of connection between something relatable and human in the ever-changing world of technology. And that’s how we help your marketing do what it should: connect with and serve your customers. Connect with us today.