Flatiron NoMad

Flatiron NoMad Partnership is the Business Improvement District (BID) located just south of Midtown Manhattan and is one of the most iconic districts in the city.

In January 2022, the BID expanded its footprint to include the entire NoMad neighborhood and hired Pentagram to help position and reintroduce the BID as one unified and unparalleled destination. The new name reflects the emergence of NoMad as its own community within the district.

The challenge of this project was finding a way to visualize the merger between Flatiron and NoMad while also expressing the idea that the district is the most quintessentially “New York” of any in the city. The vibrant and historic area is a dynamic center of activity, bringing together old and new; uptown and downtown, residential and commercial, culture and education; iconic urbanism (in the form of the Flatiron Building) and beautiful open space (Madison Square Park); and a crossroads for the surrounding neighborhoods of Chelsea, Gramercy, Kips Bay, and Rose Hill.

This idea is captured in the BID’s new tagline, “Where New York meets New York,” and carries through to the graphic language built around connection.

The logo links “Flatiron” and “NoMad” with the diagonal and vertical lines of the “N”s, creating a connection reflective of the district’s infamous intersection between Broadway and 5th Ave.
These lines extend to create ligatures between words and other brand expressions, as well as more circuitous routes that suggest wandering around the neighborhood.
The Flatiron building and the Gilded Lady Mural are two of the district’s most popular and recognizable attractions. They are used throughout the identity system to represent the two neighborhoods and serve as inspiration for the brand’s colors and iconography.

Throughout the streets and plazas, multi colored banners, posters, bollard covers, and more, mark the district boundaries and announce the BID’s new identity.

Website:
The Flatiron NoMad website brings the identity system to life with dynamic typography and large fields of color. The website development by Kudos.
Social media:
The social media icon features the Flatiron building, as opposed to the logo, because of its star power and immediate recognition with visitors tagging their photos online.
Annual report map:
To emphasize and celebrate the BID’s expanded footprint and new identity, we created a gatefold map that highlighted the district’s attractions.