Newbury Street
A district-wide rebrand unifying Newbury Street’s fashion, retail, dining, and cultural destinations under one cohesive identity.
CLIENT
Urban Meritage, Jamestown Properties, and the Back Bay Association
SECTOR
Retail / Tourism / Urban Placemaking
LOCATION
Boston, MA
SCOPE OF WORK
Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Visual Language, Website
About this project
Newbury Street is one of Boston’s most recognizable retail corridors, lined with historic brownstones housing independent boutiques, galleries, and restaurants. Despite that prominence, retailers had no shared way to reach the people walking past. Each business posted sales, events, and updates on its own, and a visitor on the street had no single place to find out what was actually there, or whether it was open.
The goal was a platform retailers could use as one shared home for that information, paired with a mobile site visitors could use while on the block itself: tap a business and see its hours, address, and what it is, in real time.
The mark comes directly from the architecture of Newbury Street. Repeating vertical forms abstract the rhythm of its brownstone façades and storefronts, while a subtle diagonal creates an embedded “N.”
Architectural rather than literal, the mark captures the cadence of the street and gives it a distinct identity of its own.
A saturated palette reflects the energy of fashion, art, dining, and street life, balanced by neutrals drawn from the street’s brick and stone. Typography and graphic elements build on the same architectural logic as the mark, giving individual businesses room to keep their own identity within the system.
The site works as a companion for walking the street. Retailers post their own sales, events, and updates directly, so the information stays current without a central team maintaining it. Visitors browse the interactive map while they’re on the block, tap a listing, and get hours, address, and a description immediately, encouraging people to keep exploring rather than turn back.
3D forms representing Newbury Street’s varied brownstones and storefronts make up the mark, with a diagonal shadow forming the crossbar of the embedded “N.”
Aktiv Grotesk gives the typography a clean, graphic presence that lets the mark command attention without extra ornament.
The art on the website moves between mid-century illustration, pop art, and photography, the same range you’d find walking Newbury Street itself, from a coffee shop to Cartier, an ice cream stand to a gallery opening.
Cyan, coral, magenta, violet, green, orange, and blue, paired with soft neutrals, capture the street’s lively character.
An interactive map lets visitors search every shop, restaurant, and service on the street in real time.
The identity extends onto the street itself, with storefront signage carrying the mark and palette into the everyday experience of walking Newbury Street.
The result
Retailers now have one shared place to post sales, events, and updates. Visitors have one place to find out what’s on the street, and a mobile site that tells them a business’s hours and address the moment they’re standing in front of it. The same mark, palette, and illustration system carry the identity across print, environmental graphics, and the digital platform, so it reads as one district rather than a collection of storefronts marketing independently.
Newbury Street is one example of how Adams Design approaches placemaking, brand strategy, and brand identity for retail and lifestyle districts.
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Adams Design works with property owners and business associations on placemaking, brand strategy, and identity for retail and lifestyle districts.