DOWNTOWN MISSOULA PARTNERSHIP UNVEILS UPDATED BRANDING

Following a year-long process, the Downtown Missoula Partnership (DMP) unveiled updated branding to showcase the collaborative effort of its three organizations: the Missoula Downtown Association, the Downtown Business Improvement District, and the Missoula Downtown Foundation. Designed by local agency Bonfire Brands, the brand refresh coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the Missoula Downtown Association.

Founded in 1975, the Missoula Downtown Association (MDA) began as a merchant’s association among Downtown retailers looking to collaborate and support each other within the district. Over time, the MDA grew beyond retailers to include any and all businesses within the Heart of Missoula, and throughout Missoula. Today, the MDA boasts a membership of over 520 businesses, organizations, and even individuals.

As the MDA started to make positive impacts to Downtown, the need for additional support grew and the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) was created in 2005. As a way to provide clean and safe programming for Downtown, the BID is funded via property-assessments within a defined boundary. Following even more growth within Downtown, and a need to raise funds via a 501©3 for projects and programs, the Missoula Downtown Foundation (MDF) was established in 2010. The MDF has raised and reinvested nearly $3.5 million back into Downtown on projects such as Caras Park improvements, holiday décor, the Heritage Missoula Legacy Trail kiosks, and the Beartracks Underbridge Playspace.

“All three organizations, while functioning under one roof, were not officially defined as one collective entity until the creation of the Downtown Missoula Partnership in 2014,” said DMP Executive Director Linda McCarthy. “The DMP was created to streamline internal processes and developed a way for staff to truly work as one team. Our growth and impact as an organization has continued to increase over the years, and we’re proud of our contributions to Downtown and its story.”

“The branding for the organization, however, was not overly cohesive other than the names contained “Downtown” and “Missoula”,” said Kristen Sackett, Marketing & Events Director. “After strategic discussions about our marketing, led by Jill Alban of Ahead by 11, we realized it was time to have a brand that was unified and represented the collaborative efforts of our organizations. Some of the confusion about the DMP and what we do may have been, in part, because our branding didn’t look like one, recognizable brand family. This brand refresh project looked to fix that.”

Bonfire Brands, founded and led by owner Blake Nicolazzo, was chosen to lead the branding redesign. Based in Missoula, Bonfire Brands came to life in 2012 with the vision of delivering world-class design, communications, and marketing services in Missoula and Montana. “The DMP selected Bonfire due to its commitment to our community and their love for all things Downtown,” said Sackett. “It was important for our organization to work with a team who truly understood our mission and the work we do, on top of having a portfolio of well-developed and recognizable branding projects.”

After six months of design work, the river and bridges logo is an unmistakable visual representation of Downtown and the work of the DMP.

“One thing that was important to all of the individuals working on the project was that our new branding be unique, yet still visually represent the place our mission is all about,” McCarthy said. “It was a tall order to not be cliché with buildings as part of our branding, something that a lot of Downtown organizations have in their logos. Our tagline is ‘Connecting Our Community’, and what better way to represent that than the river, which is a grounding centerpiece for Downtown, and the bridges that help connect all of us. Bonfire was able to represent everything we’re about within the new branding, and we are incredibly proud of the end product.”

“We’ve come a long way in 50 years, and we’re eager to take this new branding, and the maturation of the DMP, into the next 50 years,” said McCarthy.

The DMP will celebrate and highlight its brand refresh, along with the 50^th Anniversary of the MDA, throughout 2025. For more information about the new branding and the Downtown Missoula Partnership, contact their office at [email protected] or 406.543.4238.