Visual identity design is influenced by inter-relationships with an area First Nations population that is equivalent to the Town of Fort Frances. An expressed collaborative strategic goal of the Community Development Roadmap that lies within the Brand Strategy is to work with Northwest Bay and Rainy River First Nations on economic development and investment initiatives.
Take a generational pulp mill town and throw it in the spin of globalization, paper-replacing technology, and economics and you have a community facing a key intersection in determining its future. A pulp mill that once employed 1,700 in a community of 8,000 people now stands idle.
The status quo would involve spending all one’s resources trying to restore a mill to former glory. A “hard truths” path would involve recognition that the past is not the future, that external forces (mill economics) can’t be controlled, and that Fort Frances could control its destiny by coming together around common vision that builds off local skills, nurtures an entrepreneurial spirit, collaborates with other organizations and communities in new ways, and pursues economic diversification. And if a mill re-opens in any capacity…a bonus – but only one egg in an economic basket.
The Town of Fort Frances, located on the American-Canadian border in the forests of Northwestern Ontario, chose the latter path in its brand development process in 2013.
