My team got the unique opportunity to work directly with the city government to build a new communication plan for their 2019-2020 Strategic Plan. Up to that point, the city’s strategic plans were not reaching very many citizens…and those that did see it were usually critical of what, to the public eye, was seen as a lopsided focus on “artsy stuff” and lacked direction for infrastructure and businesses. The main objective we identified was to create a method for promoting the city’s strategic plan that would take into consideration every citizen’s perspective…not just the newsworthy accomplishments of arts organizations or tourist destinations.

I led a team that took its inspiration from airports, subway systems, national park signage, and other case studies that outlined instances of massive amounts of information that had to be communicated very quickly and simply. We built a color-coded system of “Key Visions” to organize the city’s goals into focus areas that would be easy to distinguish and quick to recognize from the perspective of a layman citizen.

We expanded the plan’s reach by building a website version of the primary plan booklet (below) and including social media posts that highlighted events or projects that targeted each of the key focus areas, so that the general public could see the true depth and range of the city’s priorities. This project later expanded to a Business Resource guide, which I designed and maintained for consecutive years. The project was known as “Our Paducah” and many of the posters highlighting Key Visions are still up in City Hall today.