Years: 2015
KCCI’s 2015 Community Catalyst class, known as the SeeTallahassee team, has worked with community leaders to enhance connectivity between Tallahassee’s unique areas and to improve wayfinding: the ability to orient oneself in physical space and navigate from place to place. The goal is to provide residents with a sense of ownership, visitors with a sense of wonder, and young professionals and millennials with a sense of possibilities.
In order to accomplish this mission, the team implemented a campaign based on an artistic vision for identifying and highlighting Tallahassee’s landmarks, special interest districts and hidden treasures. The campaign includes:
- Design of an artisanal map, in print and digital form, to highlight Tallahassee’s districts while unifying them in an innovative aerial view. To download a copy of the artistic map, click here for the Tallahassee map.
- Creation of an interactive responsive website, using the artisanal map as a foundation. Layers on the site will provide landmarks, shopping, dining, bus system, walking areas, bike areas, historic areas, art, etc. Districts will provide relevant information on businesses, special places, events, links to existing websites.
- Creation of murals to bring public attention to the map and responsive website. The first mural went up in Midtown, the second in SOMO on South Monroe, the third in Market District, and the fourth in Frenchtown. More murals are on the way.
The public launch of the #SeeTallahassee project was a mural welcoming visitors to Tallahassee’s Midtown District, painted on the north wall of 1351 Thomasville Rd. the weekend of September 19-20, 2015. The mural is visible to thousands of area drivers and pedestrians daily.
“Art played a huge role for us in developing way finding,” said KCCI Catalyst Alana Taylor. “Each artistic mural we completed allowed the district’s sense of place to become more recognizable, from large typography and arrows in Midtown highlighting their favorite spots to street signs and birds flying high in South Monroe calling out some of their local highlights.”
The district murals are one part street art and another part wayfinding. Each mural presents area highlights in a clear, consistent and concise design focusing on nearby, primarily walkable locations within Tallahassee’s sense-of-place districts. The murals highlight the theme and location of each district’s landmarks and bring small moments of beauty to unexpected place.
The Midtown mural is the product of the KCCI team in collaboration with Street Art Tallahassee-Chiara Saldivar, founder and creative director, and Daniel McCluskey, partner and director of operations. Paint for the Midtown mural was donated by Sherwin-Williams, Thomasville Rd. Midtown sponsors of the mural include: Southern Compass Outfitters, Maddox Horne Law Firm, Flecia Braswell, Chaney, Couch & Associates Family Dentistry, and Rogers, Gunter, Vaughn Insurance.
The Market District mural emphasizes the district’s connections to the area’s natural beauty, healthy living, recreation, as well as its wide variety of dining and shopping opportunities. Sponsors of the Market District mural include building owner Fred Shelfer, Chad Gardner of SuperSuds, Premier Health and Fitness and the Community Foundation of North Florida. Porter Paints donated the paint for the project. The mural was designed by local artist and designer Libby Armstrong.
The Southside Mural is located on the north wall of Orion Motorsports, 1215 S. Monroe St. and marks the gateway to the South Monroe district. It sits adjacent to Cascades Park, the new pedestrian bridge, and Capital Cascades Trail. The mural was illustrated by Libby Armstrong and was produced by Street Art Tallahassee.
The Frenchtown Mural was painted on the side of the Frenchtown Farmer’s Market by Kadija Christie, a 25-year-old native of Miami, is a graduate of Florida A&M University. 
The promotion of both Tallahassee’s developing and well-established districts through a lens of arts and culture is intended to engender a true understanding of Tallahassee as a whole and what it has to offer.
The SeeTallahassee map greets visitors at the Tallahassee International Airport. For more information about the airport, click here.
The #SeeTallahassee project is designed to inform current and potential residents about these unique districts and how together they create a truly diverse city with many opportunities for working, playing and living. For more information about the team’s activities, visit instagram.com/encompass_tally or Facebook.
Community Catalysts
These are the people who helped make this project possible.
- Paige Carter-Smith
- Fran Conaway
- Ashley Daniels
- Rebekah Dorn
- Brad Johnson
- Stefanie Kiedrowski
- Lucas Lindsey
- Joseph Lowder
- Christine Nieves
- Marcus Rhodes
- Robert Streater
- Alana Taylor
- Krishnan Viswanathan
- Gayle Webb