Once a factory & warehouse and today, a 60,000 square feet of workspace for Asheville’s artists and innovators — The Kent Building has played a leading role in shaping the local economy of the River Arts District (R.A.D.). When Jesse Plaster, developer of The Kent Building, approached us to create the identity and website design our task was not just to show the outstanding culture and heritage of the place but also to interweave the architectural assets.
The Kent Building brand identity draws inspiration from the exposed brick walls, ghost signs of the advertisements for the buildings’ original tenants, board-formed concrete, trapezoidal floor plans, and the interior columns.
The Kent Building website is intended to be informational and act as a hub for the innovative community of artists, small businesses, and food and drink establishments that will work and play in and around the building. The River Arts District is deeply rooted in its history, art, and architecture. So it was important to provide historical information about the building and its existence within the R.A.D. and Asheville. Additionally the website intends to inform its visitors about the rich community that will inhabit the building itself. A directory to access each of these member’s information is included on the site that will be displayed once the tenants begin to occupy their space. And finally, a news section was added in order to announce any news and upcoming events in the Kent Building. For this project, we worked with one of our favorite wordsmiths, Rose Jenkins, to craft the website’s copy.
