MLT branding open house balances city growth and character preservation

The City of Mountlake Terrace hosted a branding open house that drew about 15 residents to City Hall Wednesday. Ten posters featured different concepts on what image and message the city wants to portray to its residents, visitors, businesses and developers.

Attendees were given a strip of 10 star stickers that they placed on the ideas that they liked. They also used sticky notes to share their likes and dislikes on the posters.

Brier resident and financial advisor Sergio Colón said that he and his colleagues at Edward Jones in Lake Forest Park are moving their business to Mountlake Terrace. He said he attended last week’s City Council meeting to get a feel for the community, and he likes what he experienced.

“I think it’s neat to see a city be so transparent about what the plans are and then also invite the community to come take it all in, share feedback,” Colón said. “It wasn’t just the ‘ayes.’ There was a lot of discussion about the proclamations [presented at the Council meeting] and why they’re important.”

The City hired Chicago-based consulting firm All Together last October to help enhance Mountlake Terrace’s image, attract investors and boost economic development. According to the City’s contract with the firm, it is a 10- to 12-month project structured in three phases with costs capped at $68,920.

City spokesperson Sienna Spencer-Markles told My MLT News that Mountlake Terrace has become more diverse, with more international residents, multilingual households and younger families since the 2000s.

“We feel like it’s time to address a more modern city, and the brand is really driven by the community,” she said. 

Based on an online survey conducted from early November to December, which received 313 responses, city staff and All Together found that there is almost a 50-50 split between those who want to maintain Mountlake Terrace’s existing character and those who want to embrace change and growth.

All Together Principal and Cofounder Rachael Aziz said branding “tells who you are and it differentiates you from your neighbors.” 

“Every community is unique. It has its own personality, and it should be able to communicate that personality, both visually and through consistent messaging,” Aziz said. “Growth is coming, but how can we do it in a way that feels true to the place so that the people who’ve been here all along don’t feel like this isn’t a community that’s theirs anymore?”

According to Aziz, she and her team is targeting three audiences with the new branding:

• Residents: To keep them informed and engage them via the City’s social media pages.
• Visitors: To draw people from outside the community to support local businesses
• Developers: To communicate with investors as plans develop for the City’s future Town Center, to ensure it reflects the community’s history and character. This can help avoid turning Mountlake Terrace into a cookie-cutter model.

“I don’t think that city branding should feel corporate or almost too polished,” Aziz said. “Like [there should be a] sense of authenticity. We are a municipality, we are delivering services for our residents.” 

She added that inconsistent branding across city departments is “not good” because it prevents people from seeing how the city’s various services are connected. “If people only associate the City with the permitting department, then [they’re] not getting the benefit of good associations and the services that the City is putting on,” Aziz said.

All Together Visual Designer Robyn Marquand was responsible for creating three visual aesthetics for the City, and comparing them to the current brand. Attendees gave their feedback on three themes: modern, human and “outdoorsy.”

Marquand said the first concept (modern) expands on the current city logo with an emphasis on geometric shapes that provides a “more clear, direct, bold” visual. But she noticed that people preferred the human and “outdoorsy” concepts. 

“I can tell that people are really gravitating towards outdoorsiness, authenticity, nostalgia, but also moving forward,” she said. “My biggest challenge is to marry the two goals of respecting the past of MLT and also moving MLT forward and helping it achieve its goals.”

Spencer-Markles said the city’s logo will not be redesigned, but it will be polished with “fresh colors.”

“The new brand will be incorporated across all digital communications, collateral, printed materials, social media, website – and eventually, out in the world with placemaking, signage and wayfinding design,” she said.

Councilmember Sam Doyle said that Mountlake Terrace is a “teenage city” compared to nearby older cities like Edmonds and Lynnwood, because it started out as a World War II veteran community in the 1950s. 

“I think branding for a city shows who you are, what you care about, what you stand for, and what you want to be as a city in the future,” Doyle said. “When you say Lynnwood, people think of the commercial center. It’s much larger. It’s more dense. You think Edmonds? You think, oh, they have a really cute downtown. They have a ferry. In Mountlake Terrace, people pause.”

Mayor Steve Woodard said that he heard from residents that Mountlake Terrace is a “hidden gem.” He thinks branding is important because it lets the City tell its own story, which is the difference between being seen and heard versus being overlooked. 

“A lot of people should be really paying attention to us because we’re doing a lot of innovative work that is a model for the state,” Woodard said. “[It’s not] whether or not [the City] should be telling people we’re a hidden gem. The better question is: Are you coveting the gem or are you trying to angle it to the light so that others can see the beauty of it? And what this branding is allowing us to do is the latter.”