CASE STUDY:
Boise Illustrated Zoning Code
How a Comic Book Transformed Complex Zoning into Community Engagement
In 2024, the City of Boise faced a unique challenge: how do you help residents understand and engage with a brand-new zoning code that hadn't been updated in over 50 years? How do you make zoning—one of the most technical and intimidating aspects of city planning—not just accessible, but actually engaging for everyday people?
What emerged was the Boise Illustrated Zoning Guide, a groundbreaking comic book that takes readers on a time-traveling journey through the city's past, present, and future. Through characters, storylines, and Easter eggs celebrating local culture, this first-of-its-kind approach transforms bureaucratic complexity into an invitation for community participation.
The Challenge
The City of Boise, after adopting its Modern Zoning Code in June 2023—the first substantial update in more than 50 years—recognized that the technical nature of zoning regulations created barriers to meaningful community engagement:
Comprehension Gap: Zoning codes are highly technical documents that can be difficult for residents, business owners, first-time developers, and educators to navigate, yet these regulations directly impact every neighborhood.
Engagement Barriers: Traditional zoning documents weren't meeting the needs of a community increasingly interested in understanding how new regulations would impact their city.
Participation Imperative: The city wanted residents to be active participants in building Boise's future, but that required demystifying planning processes and making zoning concepts understandable to everyone.
Our Approach: The Story Matters
We designed a process that prioritized community voices and creative problem-solving from the very beginning:
Deep Community Listening
We conducted extensive discovery discussions with a diverse range of stakeholders, including developers, architects, residents, historic preservationists, neighborhood associations, youth and young adults (13-26), local businesses, advocacy organizations, BSU representatives, and city staff.
This wasn't just research—it was relationship building that revealed how different community members experienced and thought about development in their city.
Collaborative Storytelling
Our process invited stakeholders to help define what the new guide needed to accomplish:
Make zoning concepts accessible without oversimplification
Connect planning regulations to Boise's community values
Provide practical information for various types of development projects
Create an on-ramp for residents wanting to get involved in the planning process
Innovative Format
Based on community input emphasizing the need for visual, accessible communication, we proposed something unprecedented: a comic book format that would use characters, storylines, and illustrations to make zoning engaging rather than intimidating.
The Solution: Explore Oak Park and Beyond
Our naming process led to "Explore Oak Park and Beyond"—a strategic solution that addressed multiple stakeholder needs:
Unpacking the Strategic Elements
"Explore": An active invitation that:
Sparks curiosity and intentional discovery
Encourages personal engagement and immersion
Embraces unexpected discoveries
Promises depth rather than surface-level tourism
"Oak Park": A strategic anchor that:
Maintains the region's most internationally recognized destination
Preserves valuable search visibility and reputation
Acknowledges the funding reality without compromising inclusion
"and Beyond": A powerful promise that:
Acknowledges all communities without political complications of listing them
Invites visitors to push past boundaries and discover more
Creates a sense of expansiveness and possibility
Transforms a geographic region into a journey of discovery
The Brand Story
Just due west of Chicago, you’ll find an area steeped in some of Windy City’s greatest hits. It's the kind of place where internationally renowned architecture, myriad cultures, hundreds of miles of trails, and the best-of-the-best Italian beef all come together under the soft glow of vintage signs.
You’ll arrive in communities that grew up and around the train–places where legendary figures and gangsters called home or an escape. You’ll explore destination-worthy shops, a smorgasbord of global cuisine, and streets that fill up with year-round cultural festivals, races, and holiday events.
Here, you’ll discover some of the best things about this area have been preserved for you to sip, sample, and dive in. Do more, just due west.
The Brand Elements
The visual identity we created combines vintage charm with modern appeal:
Bold typography that evokes mid-century signage
A color palette inspired by diners, neon signs, and historic storefronts
Photography guidelines that prioritize authentic experiences over filtered perfection
A flexible system of community-specific logos that maintain cohesion while celebrating local identity
The Outcome: Breaking Down Borders
The new "Explore Oak Park and Beyond" brand and "Do West of Chicago" campaign accomplished what once seemed impossible—they united 19 distinct communities under a shared regional identity that respected individuality while celebrating collective strength.
By turning boundaries into invitations for discovery, we transformed a divisive name into a unifying call to action—proving that sometimes, the most powerful word in branding isn't a community name, but simply "Beyond."
As one stakeholder noted during our final presentation: "This isn't just a new name. It's a new way of working together."
