client case study

It’s no secret that many local high streets are struggling. Lower footfall, the rise of online shopping, soaring rents and decaying buildings have left many town centres feeling like ghosts of their former selves. ProMo offers a targeted approach to tackling high street decline in Montrose. From supporting local businesses with signposting, funding opportunities and promotional activity, ProMo exists to help build a stronger, more vibrant future for the town. At Due North Creatives, we too are passionate about uplifting our local communities, and we were glad to support the project with a new brand and website, completely free of charge.

The Challenge

ProMo has a clear vision: to help revitalise Montrose High Street and create a stronger connection between local businesses and the wider community.

However, while the organisation was already making an impact, its existing brand and digital presence didn’t reflect the scale of its ambition.

There were also areas where not having a website was slowing down their progress. ProMo relied heavily on manual processes to manage elements of its work. This included manually organising bookings for the Pop-Up Shop, managing membership enquiries and sharing information across multiple channels.

That’s why the challenge wasn’t simply creating a new logo or online presence. ProMo needed a platform that could support the ongoing regeneration of Montrose by making it easier for businesses to get involved, helping residents discover opportunities and allowing the team to manage the organisation more efficiently.

Approach

We began by working closely with Cara Gall, Project Development Officer, and David Paton, Co-Founder & Trustee of ProMo, to understand ProMo’s ambitions, audiences and the practical requirements of the organisation.

After initial discussions and workshops, our designer led the brand development and website design process, exploring what ProMo needed from its new identity and how different audiences would interact with the website. Alongside this, we worked on developing the website copy, ensuring the messaging clearly communicated ProMo’s purpose, impact and opportunities for involvement.

Together, we created a brand and website that not only represented the organisation visually, but clearly communicated its role in supporting the future of Montrose.

Our approach was broken down into two key stages:

Brand Development: Creating a recognisable identity that represented Montrose’s high street, its people and the community spirit behind ProMo.

Website Design & Development: Building a flexible website that reduced manual administration, improved accessibility and gave ProMo the ability to manage its own content as the organisation continues to evolve.

Brand

Before this project, ProMo had a basic hand-drawn logo, but it wasn’t communicating the ambition or impact of the organisation and it didn’t reflect the fun and vibrant community behind it.

During our initial conversations, Cara and David shared a vibrant illustration of Montrose High Street created by Steph Strachan, which became a key inspiration for the new identity as it immediately highlighted the character, colour and personality of the town.

The final logo uses overlapping building shapes inspired by the high street, representing the different parts of the community coming together. The visual language reflects the idea that ProMo is not one organisation working alone, but a collective effort involving businesses, residents, visitors and partners.

The colour palette was also carefully considered, with each colour representing an important part of Montrose’s identity:

• Beach: Reflecting the coastline and natural surroundings
• Burgh: Representing the history and heritage of the town
• Basin: Connecting to Montrose Basin and the wider landscape
• People: Representing the community at the heart of everything ProMo does

The result is an identity that feels welcoming, energetic and unmistakably connected to Montrose.

Website

With the new brand established, we designed and developed a website that could act as the digital home for everything happening across Montrose. We added a unique booking system to the website unlike anything we’ve created before to allow the ProMo team to efficiently process applications. After a round of research and testing available options, we found a solution that balanced functionality with ease of use.

We designed and developed a website that puts the community at the centre while giving the ProMo team the tools to manage content independently.

The new website:

• Allows individuals, businesses and corporate organisations to apply for membership through streamlined online forms
• Provides an events calendar that’s easy to manage in the back of the website
• Includes a news and blog section to share updates, stories and opportunities
• Features a business directory that ProMo can update themselves as membership grows
• Showcases available shop listings and property opportunities to support town centre regeneration
• Includes donation functionality to make supporting ProMo easier
• Introduces online Pop-Up Shop booking functionality, removing the need for manual booking management

Behind the scenes, the website was built with flexibility and ease of use in mind. This means ProMo can update key areas of the website themselves without relying on technical support, while contact forms ensure enquiries are automatically directed to the right place.

The result is a website communicates ProMo’s mission but more importantly, supports those behind it.

Website Results

Since launching approximately four months ago, the new ProMo website has already helped increase awareness, simplify membership processes and improve community engagement.

Results so far include:

• 56 individual membership sign-ups
• 20 business membership sign-ups
• 3 corporate membership sign-ups
• 600 website visitors in the last 90 days
• 1,800 Google search impressions
• 225 clicks from search
• 184 unique visitors from organic search

Beyond the numbers, the website has created a more efficient way for ProMo to manage its activities, reducing manual administration and providing a stronger platform for future growth.

The new brand and website have helped position ProMo as the central voice for Montrose’s regeneration, making it easier for businesses and the wider community to engage, participate and support the future of the town.

Results

By creating a brand that reflects the community spirit of Montrose and a website that supports the practical running of the organisation, ProMo now has something to be proud of.

The new brand and website have given ProMo a clearer identity and a more effective platform for growth, combining strategic design, accessible content and practical functionality to support the ongoing regeneration of Montrose town centre.