Lowell Neighborhood Icons

This is a set of neighborhood icons I developed for Lowell, Mass as part of a broader icon set for Lowell Votes, called Civicons. Right now neighborhoods have little to no visual identity.

It was important that the set "hang" together while still having some personality. We based each off of letterforms for the first initial, save for one. Some have more specific call-outs to major features or history. In order, they are:

The Acre
Historically irish and Greek, this shows the silhouette of tw iconic churches that anchor the neighborhood.

Back Central
This is located in the the corner of downtown. the C roughly echoes the shape of that border, with the inset of the B acting as an arrow.

Belvidere
This neighborhood is high up on a hill, which is shown inside the B and flows with the letter's natural forms.

Lower Belvidere
This is, naturally, down the hill from Belvidere.

Centralville
This neighborhood is name dafter the old "Central Bridge" which was replaced long ago. The silhouette of the current bridge in that location spans the C.

Downtown
Downtown is the most well-known neighborhood, home to many historic mills (and their smokestacks, shown) – even a National Historical park)

Highlands
This neighborhood is a residential neighborhood built above Downtown.

Lower Highlands
Right below the Highlands.

Pawtucketville
The neighborhood is known for the big man-made waterfall & dam that powered downtown's mills. The left side of the P roughly echoes the dam's shape from above.

Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart is a neighborhood known for having a large pasta factory. Some call it "Spaghettiville". We have a heart with a pasta inside of it.

South Lowell
One of the southernmost neighborhoods. Arrows pointing down have badd connotations, so we used a compass to indicate the "south" part and be more visually interesting.

Posted on Jul 19, 2019
Mark VDH
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