Case Study: The Flats on Howard

The Howard Street Apart­ment Dis­trict, now on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places, was orig­i­nal­ly occu­pied as sec­ond and third-gen­er­a­tion, mul­ti­fam­i­ly homes, built between 1908 – 1930. This dis­trict — once turned-eye­sore — on the west­ern fringe of down­town Oma­ha, is now revi­tal­ized into a pedes­tri­an friend­ly cam­pus of 153 units with­in over a dozen restored his­tor­i­cal structures.

Lat­i­tude worked as a team with Arch Icon Devel­op­ment, Alley Poyn­er Mac­chi­et­to Archi­tects, and design­er Bethany Bau­man to cre­ate and pro­duce a very dis­tinct sig­nage sys­tem that show­cas­es the over­all brand require­ments of The Flats. Key to the design devel­op­ment was the need for a pri­mar­i­ly exte­ri­or-grade and all-weath­er sign sys­tem. It was also impor­tant that the signs were designed to blend with the his­toric brick and archi­tec­ture of the buildings.

The build­ing names and pho­tos speak to each indi­vid­ual build­ing. The design­er devel­oped a brand book and ini­tial con­cepts, which Lat­i­tude reshaped into a use­able project. The image designs, cus­tom type­styles, and char­ac­ter images were direct dig­i­tal print graph­ics onto alu­minum pan­els. This allowed for the signs to be durable and weath­er well in the ele­ments, while also pro­vid­ing the per­fect ​“can­vas” to apply the designer’s look and unique illus­tra­tions in a full col­or process.