Manteo’s brand position: a premier historic downtown in the Outer Banks region. Its story encompasses an eclectic coastal heritage, a waterfront music venue, and a friendly, coastal vibe.
Strategy
Historically, Manteo has solely been associated with the mysterious Lost Colony- the first English settlement of the New World, which famously vanished and still remains one of America’s oldest unsolved mysteries.
While interesting, Manteo’s new brand strategy calls for richer storytelling, reflecting the community’s diverse, indigenous history and wide array of assets.
Content
Our team experienced first-hand the charm and history of this vibrant community, providing an ideal launch pad for storytelling, and visual content development.
From the strategy, a powerful brand anthem is crafted, and a video is produced in collaboration with community members and local business owners, all coming together to celebrate and launch the new “Meet Me in Manteo” brand.
By highlighting Manteo’s serene, balanced lifestyle, the video engages residents as brand ambassadors and invites visitors to discover the town’s slower-paced, maritime-inspired experience.
Through this community-driven approach, the new Manteo brand aims to attract travelers seeking an immersive, small town experience along the Outer Banks.
Wayfinding Designs
Our comprehensive approach to enhancing Manteo’s identity includes a fully engineered wayfinding package that seamlessly integrates the new brand elements while drawing inspiration from local architecture. The signage not only guides visitors through the historic downtown area but also reinforces Manteo’s friendly character and nautical charm.
Brand
Identity
Manteo’s new brand will help drive economic growth by fostering an expanded sense of place, and enhancing community appeal among residents and visitors alike.
Destination by Design partnered with the Town of Manteo to develop a new place brand and wayfinding signage plan that sets the coastal town apart from the rest of the North Carolina Outer Banks. The project introduced “Meet Me in Manteo,” a brand anthem and visual identity built around the town’s eclectic coastal heritage, waterfront music venue, and friendly maritime vibe, moving the town’s story beyond its long association with the Lost Colony.
In North Carolina, community branding and wayfinding come together especially well in coastal towns competing for attention within a larger regional identity like the Outer Banks. Manteo’s project reflects that pairing directly, with a fully engineered wayfinding package that draws inspiration from local architecture, guiding visitors through the historic downtown while reinforcing the new brand’s nautical charm.
Standing out within a well-known region takes more than a new logo. It takes a brand strategy built on richer storytelling. Manteo’s rebrand does exactly that, drawing on the town’s diverse, indigenous history and everyday coastal lifestyle rather than leaning solely on its famous Lost Colony mystery, engaging residents as brand ambassadors through a video produced with local business owners to invite visitors into a slower-paced, small-town experience.
Community branding is the process of developing a visual identity, brand strategy, and messaging framework that captures a place’s unique character and communicates it to residents and visitors alike. For Manteo, that meant logo and visual identity design, brand strategy, photography and video production, and a wayfinding signage plan, all working together to expand the town’s sense of place and drive economic growth.
Manteo sits on Roanoke Island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, best known historically as the site of the Lost Colony, America’s oldest unsolved settlement mystery. Its position within the larger Outer Banks region made differentiation central to the branding challenge, positioning Manteo as a premier historic downtown and a worthy destination in its own right rather than just a stop along the way.
