Chicago’s Bronzeville has a rich cultural history as a nexus of civil rights and music, including blues, jazz, and gospel. It was or is also home to such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Louis Armstrong, Ida B. Wells, and Gwendolyn Brooks. But for many years, the South Side neighborhood has not received the attention and funding that many other local neighborhoods have.
Today, funding is more available, including monies for the development of South Side Sanctuary Park, now a center for sports, recreation, and notably, skateboarding, a sport that is forbidden in most of Chicago.
Design studio Span was invited to create the identity for the new park. References to skateboarding, as well as musical provenance, informed much of the designers’ decisions. From a Creative Boom article on the project: “The park’s custom uppercase stencil letters with descenders nod to a Bronzeville public bench designed by local artist Apache Wakefield. These unique letterforms were chosen to pay homage to the park’s topography, which includes surfaces for skating and sitting. Every element of the logotype was carefully considered, including the geometry of the letterforms, which is directly inspired by [the park developer’s] architectural site plan for the park. In this plan, 45-degree diagonals inform every detail, including a shortcut to the Green Line L-station.”