The Downtown Community Partnership (DCP) is a private sector development corporation for the downtown district that includes Fargo, ND and Moorhead MN. The DCP’s commitment to downtown dates back to 1969 with the incorporation of the Fargo Park and Shop later becoming the Downtown Business Association. Over the years, the name changed to emphasize a more community approach to downtown revitalizati
on. This mission was expanded beyond traditional retail and special events to take on development challenges facing downtown. Major initiatives facilitated by the DCP over the years include the adoption of the North Dakota Renaissance Zone, the Broadway Streetscape Improvement Project, Railway Quiet Zone Project and most recently the development of North Dakota’s first Downtown Business Improvement District (BID). In January 2013, the Board of Directors approved a new Vision/Mission/Logo as part of a re-branding and strategic plan. The logo was part of a community wide Logo Design Competition and over 20 designs were submitted. Jessi Larson, a freelance graphic designer and LEED certified interior designer at Michael J. The new logo features an art design encompassing four main shapes forming a circle. Jessi Larson describes the concept of her winning design: “The color palate was pulled directly from images that represent downtown, the community, and our natural landscape. Grass green, sky blue, harvest orange and wheat yellow. Amping up the intensity of these colors helps to reflect the vibrancy of our downtown community. Equally part of the ‘re-branding’ is the inclusion of the DCP’s mission verbs: promote, advocate, educate, envision. Each mission verb is assigned a color. When the four colors are combined, as represented in the logo, you achieve a ‘whole’. The logo design is based around the concept of the DCP’s role in helping to make our community ‘whole’ by promoting, advocating, educating, and envisioning.”
