The Alternative Press

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ -- The Main Street South Orange website will be getting a major face-lift, thanks to a grant from the Main Street New Jersey program.

Main Street South Orange was chosen to receive the 2011 Digital Design and Branding Services Grant, which will allow the organization to build a new website that will rebrand the downtown South Orange area. The new website will highlight downtown South Orange’s shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.

Executive director Carole Anzalone-Newman said in a statement, “We have recruited an amazing team of volunteer stakeholders to serve as the Brand Steering Committee, which includes South Orange business owners, a member of the governing body, and residents that have relevant work experience in advertising, sales and marketing, economic development, event planning and graphic design.”

The grant, worth an estimated $20,000, is for digital branding services, which will pair Main Street South Orange members with a team of technical consultants from ITO Inc. from Somerville. Led by Raymond Gonzalez, ITO’s team is working with the Brand Steering Committee to understand South Orange’s assets and develop a method of advertising South Orange.

Gonzalez and the steering committee are in the initial phases of assessing the community’s assets and deciding what a South Orange brand would look like. Work on the project is expected to last between 20 and 24 weeks.

According to Gonzalez, while the project will ultimately manifest itself through a website, “there may be other pieces along the way.”

While the creative plan is still in its infancy, Main Street South Orange has a general vision for the site. “We do know that we want it to be exciting and impressionable for people,” Anzalone-Newman said. “That people are taken in by the brand and the town.”

She said she is particularly excited by the prospect of creating a new introduction for the downtown area so that people can see what South Orange has to offer. “I think it will be great,” she said. “It’s meant to really showcase the town, and I think that whatever we’re working on, it’s going to be a real opportunity for the town.”

Anzalone-Newman also said that the grant will allow them to create a website that will give a professional feeling to what Main Street South Orange already does.

“The fact that they are putting themselves out there will help tremendously,” Gonzalez said of South Orange. “(The website) is going to have pages for each of the places downtown.”

Gonzalez said that South Orange has tremendous assets that he and his team look forward to bringing (the website) to the next level.

Morgan Tornetta is participating in a hyperlocal journalism partnership between The Alternative Press and Seton Hall University's Department of Communication & The Arts designed to give students real-world experience.