Molly Patterson, co-owner of Glover Street Market in Twisp, and Brice Butler install a “Methow Made” retail display earlier this week. Butler designed and built the displays; Corin McDonald designed the logo. Photo by Don Nelson
BY DON NELSON
TwispWorks launched the public phase of its “Methow Made” marketing campaign to support local producers this week as it began placing product displays in eight local retail outlets.
The displays, designed and built by Brice Butler using recycled wood from nearby sources, feature the logo that local designer Corin McDonald developed to help promote Methow-made goods. Local artist Steve Ward also assisted with the metal elements of the displays.
The first display went up last Friday (June 7) at the Mazama Store, followed by a Monday (June 10) installation at Glover Street Market in Twisp.
Other displays are designated for Hank’s Harvest Foods, the Red Apple Market, the Sun Mountain Lodge 
store, Winthrop Motors, Local 98856 and the Carlton General Store. The displays will feature products made by Methow residents. They are not identical – each was custom-made for a specific store, according to TwispWorks Executive Director Amy Stork.
Stork said the displays are intended to help visitors answer the question, “what can I take home” to connect them with valley.
McDonald said the goal of the logo design process was to create something “simple, cohesive and flexible.” He said the logo’s color represents “the energy green of spring” in the Methow Valley.
The logo is incorporated into the retail displays to “provide a simple stage for great products” without overshadowing the individual product brands, McDonald said.
TwispWorks is using a federal grant to develop a collaborative marketing campaign, intended to increase producer sales by more aggressively promoting the Methow “brand” outside the valley, by helping individual producers refine their marketing efforts, and by increasing the presence of Methow Valley products in local and regional retailers. That’s where the new displays come in.
The marketing campaign has emphasized agricultural products this year because the grant requires it, Stork said, but the overall strategy will be applied to all Methow-made products in the future.
The logo designed by McDonald will be widely used to identify Methow Valley products.
