Neighborhoods Now 2022: Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation

Scenes from the Tompkins Avenue Open Streets event, where we launched the Backyard Tourism initiative.

Project goals • To invite new customers to small businesses in Bed-Stuy, and, more generally, to increase foot traffic and income for local businesses.

Postcard created for the Tompkins Avenue Open Streets event to spread the word about the tours and BBC’s services.

• To showcase and celebrate the neighborhood and its art, culture, history, and people.

Outcomes and next steps The design team developed a structure for the Backyard Tourism initiative that can be extended to other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and beyond. This includes a landing webpage that directs visitors to self-guided walking tours, an accordian-fold map designed to showcase points of interest and adjacent businesses as individual collector cards, and potential wayfinding signage and placemakers integrated along the tours.

• To spread the word about the Brooklyn Business Center’s services, so more businesses could benefit from their resources.

Sample covers of other walking tours curated by other organizations in neighborhoods across central Brooklyn

Backyard Tourism Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Brooklyn Business Center James Corner Field Operations Farzana Gandhi Design Studio KPF Hyperakt

The Partnership

D R A Y BACK

TOURISM

ouncil

Tours are curated by local community organizations by topic (history, art, music, food/beverage, green streets & nature, local stories, etc.). In collaboration with BBC, we partnered with the Tompkins Avenue Merchant Association (TAMA) to develop one such tour. Others are currently underway.

At a booth at TAMA Open Streets, we received community feedback and gathered their interest in the project. Community members shared “Bed-Stuy Bests” (spots that they recommend, enjoy, or have memories of) and signed up for more information about BBC’s services or to collaborate on future tours.

The Brooklyn Business Center (BBC) was seeking ways to spread the word about its services and strengthen visibility for local shops, restaurants, service providers, cafes, and other establishments. Many of these local businesses have not seen a resurgence of foot traffic as we emerge from the pandemic. They also find it challenging to access capital without having a good handle on their numbers, a critical part of keeping the doors open.

The BBC and the design team focused on communications, visual storytelling, and tech tools to encourage neighbors, visitors, and the community at large to get out in the streets and support local small businesses. After many iterations, we landed on self-guided walking tours, which would connect residents, the community, and visitors to local businesses and sites of cultural B rooklyn or historic significance.

Ar t s C

WELCOME to BED-STUY

Initial graphic identity direction inspired by NYC street signs

D R A Y BACK

Spike Le e

TOURISM

Process

Outcomes and next steps

To create this campaign, the ThoughtMatter team worked with the BBC to:

The design team is currently completing a comprehensive design system to bring the campaign to support the BBC in launching this campaign. Outcomes include: • A campaign design system, guidelines, and graphic assets for roll-out.

• Align on current challenges, goals, and inspiration for campaign messaging and design; • Conducted interviews with key stakeholders to gain a first-hand understanding of the audiences and unique community needs; and • Toured the neighborhood and visited with business-owners to align on key insights bringing us to a campaign concept and voice.

Then, we developed a confident, honest, accessible campaign with hand-touched elements to communicate an authentic message.

The unreserved, optimistic, and informative campaign is meant to inspire the Bed-Stuy community and entrepreneurs with a message that reinforces the pride Bed-Stuy has in its people.

Campaign Poster Muckup

Campaign applications: Notebooks, Postcards, T-shirt and hat

Bed-Stuy is the Business Campaign Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Brooklyn Business Center Thought Matter

Goals and challenges Through Neighborhoods Now, ThoughtMatter and the Brooklyn Business Center (BBC)collaborated to: • Create a campaign that inspires local entrepreneurs, raises awareness of the resources the Brooklyn Business Center offers, and bolsters the organization’s storytelling.

To meet the objectives of this campaign, the team decided that the focus of the communications should be targeted primaraly towards Bed-Stuy entrepreneurs and the Bed-Stuy community. Additionally, the campaign and the resources generated for it should address the challenges of building trust with Bed-Stuy entrepreneurs, strengthening outreach capacity within the BBC, and increasing awareness amongst the Bed-Stuy community.

Campaign applications: Notebooks, Postcards, T-shirt and hat