How will you ensure the final design system reflects the modern, welcoming, growth-oriented identity — rather than the structural look and feel shown in the prototype?
The prototype was built to validate structure, navigation, and the AI concierge experience — not to represent the final brand. Think of it as a working blueprint. With the Dayton: Made for More brand guidelines now in hand, Spark Space Creative will lead the creative direction from the ground up.
The brand provides a strong foundation. The sunrise-in-a-D mark references Dayton's aviation heritage while signaling optimism and forward momentum — both qualities that should carry through every touchpoint of the digital experience. Source Sans 3 brings contemporary clarity to the typography. The Deep Blue anchors credibility and trust. The Vibrant Orange carries energy and warmth into every call to action. The photography direction will feel authentic to the Dayton we know — real people, real neighborhoods, aspirational without being generic.
Our role is to implement that vision with precision, so every page, interaction, and AI touchpoint feels like one cohesive brand — not a technology demonstration dressed up with design.
Can you walk us through your process for translating a regional brand into a differentiated digital identity that feels uniquely Dayton?
We begin with listening — not just to the brief, but to the people and the place. Before any design work begins, we study the intent behind the brand: the feeling it is trying to create, the story it needs to tell, and the qualities that make this region unmistakable.
We have done this work for regional and civic organizations for fifteen years. For Miami Valley Child Development Centers, we led a full rebrand that began with stakeholder interviews and a close study of the gap between how the organization was perceived externally and how it understood itself. What emerged was a visual identity the entire team recognized as authentically theirs — applied to buildings, vehicles, signage, and communications.
For Dayton: Made for More, the four messaging pillars — Affordability and Livability, Career and Opportunity, Community and Belonging, Heritage and Momentum — become the organizing logic for the entire design system. The result is a digital presence that could be identified as Dayton's at a glance, even without a logo in the corner.