VOTE: Which Downtown Signs Do You Like?

The city of Beverly, alongside Beverly Main Streets, is looking for your opinion on the new downtown wayfinding signs. 

Developed through a $10,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the wayfinding signs are designed to be eye catching and help direct visitors to key spots in downtown Beverly and the waterfront district.

“Downtown Beverly has a lot to offer, from great restaurants, to arts and music, retail and professional services and educational resources. Both Main Streets and the City believed it was important to make sure everyone coming to Beverly can easily find their way downtown,” said Beverly’s Mayor Bill Scanlon in a release.

A committee consisting of volunteers from the Beverly Main Streets Design Committee, as well as City of Beverly planning department staff, spent several months working with a consultant who developed three families of design concepts.

“We learned a lot about good sign design as we worked with the consultant,” said Gin Wallace, executive director of Beverly Main Streets. “He taught us that we should think about wayfinding signs as aimed at the visitor, not necessarily the person who knows Beverly well already.  That made us think about the signs differently.  We evaluated many colors, shapes and sizes and we think the end result will be easy to see and easy to read,” she added.

In addition to committee members, the design concepts were shared with various city department heads, elected officials, downtown stakeholders and residents. After amassing a lot of input, the group settled on a shape for trailblazing and vehicular direction signs that resembles a sail, but with an edgier feel. The group selected a shade of red for the larger signs.

“People are going to look at these for a long time. We want to make sure there is consensus on the final color scheme,” said Scanlon. “We thought this survey would be a fun and interesting way to solicit the public’s opinion,” he said. Wallace added, “We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the orange and red tones in the summer light pole banners.  We think the red signage will be just as eye-catching.”

The wayfinding sign program is part of Beverly Main Streets’ Downtown 2020 initiative to revitalize the downtown district.  A community meeting update on Downtown 2020 is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21 at 6:45 PM at the First Baptist Church, 221 Cabot St. Kennedy Smith, one of the authors of the Downtown 2020 plan, will be present.  

Take the Survey

You can vote for your favorite color combination via links on the City’s website at beverlyma.gov and at beverlymainstreets.org.

The sign survey will be open for two weeks. At the conclusion, an announcement will be made as to which color scheme had the most winning votes. Then final designs will be drawn up and the signs will be fabricated. Phase one of the wayfinding sign program is a final component of the recent $1.3 million downtown parking lot renovation project which will be paid for with parking meter and parking violation funds.

The survey is set up to accept only one vote from each IP address. “I hope we get a lot of responses,” said Scanlon. “We’re excited to learn what people think about the signs.”