DNCO rebrands Brooklyn's Dumbo as 'a different side of New York' with a tape motif

Reposition the neighborhood under the Manhattan Bridge beyond the familiar cobbled-street-and-bridge photos, and reassert its reputation as a creative place that is raw, irreverent and proudly different.

Tape as a graphic device that twists through the district's layers to reveal what lies beneath — a nod to the cardboard box invented there in 1879.

DNCO worked with the non-profit Dumbo Business Improvement District, renaming it Team Dumbo to put people at the heart of the brand; the original angled Dumbo logo stays, now backed by a steel-blue and brick-red palette drawn from the bridges and factories, carrying the expression 'a different side of New York'.

Team Dumbo now runs everything from public art projects to streetscape care under the new name, and the identity launched in June 2025 across the district's channels, including dumbo.nyc.

Dumbo — 'Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass', a name coined in the late 1970s by artists who hoped it might deter developers — sits beneath the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn and has long been a haven for the art community, with more than 100 active artist studios plus a food, retail, creative and tech scene. By 2025, though, tourism, residential development and a competitive market for office space were starting to eclipse what the area is all about.

New York studio DNCO redesigned the identity with the non-profit Dumbo Business Improvement District, which since 2006 has promoted Dumbo as a creative area. The BID was renamed Team Dumbo, 'placing people at the heart of the brand', reflecting a hands-on approach to everything from public art to streetscape care. The refreshed system retains the original angled Dumbo logo, inspired by the humble cardboard box, which was invented in Dumbo in 1879 by Scottish printer Robert Gair.

The graphic engine of the identity is tape, twisting and turning in space to connect the layers of the district and reveal what lies beneath. The palette comes from the industrial foundations: a steel blue echoing the bridges and a brick red referencing the factories. Everything carries the expression 'a different side of New York'. 'We came to DNCO at an inflection point,' said Team Dumbo president Alexandria Sica. 'Dumbo was no longer a best-kept secret, but it needed a brand that did justice to everything that makes it special.'

The one-line positioning — 'a different side of New York' — turns the district's biggest problem (being a photo backdrop) into its pitch: come for the other side.

Renaming the BID itself to Team Dumbo makes the brand a promise about people and maintenance, not just aesthetics.

Tape and the 1879 cardboard box give the identity a story rooted in the neighborhood's industrial history rather than borrowed city imagery.

The palette is drawn from the district's actual materials — bridge steel and factory brick — so the system reads as local without a landmark in sight.

A place brand works when it can say what makes it different in one line — and when the organisation selling the place changes its own name to prove the point.

The identity launched in June 2025. DNCO's North America managing director Luis Mendoza, whose office chose Dumbo when it opened a couple of years earlier, framed the project as giving something back to a neighborhood the studio walks every day. Sica credited the rebrand with 'sharp strategy and beautiful design' that helped Team Dumbo tell Dumbo's story 'with confidence and clarity'.