FXVA – Start Here

America’s 250th was always going to be crowded. Every city, state, and tourism board would reach for the same words — heritage, patriotism, history — and whoever felt like the most definitive place to be would win the moment.

Fairfax had its own version of the problem. DC sat right next door, a seemingly obvious answer to anyone asking where to celebrate America’s story. What’s more, just to the south was Williamsburg, and, to the north, Philadelphia. That’s two of the most important names in the country’s founding story, both an easy drive away. Fairfax looked boxed in.

But pull back on the map far enough, and boxed in starts to look like something else. Fairfax wasn’t stuck between the story. It was sitting in the middle of it.

Fairfax sat at the heart of America’s 250th celebration, geographically and otherwise. So we created a mark to match, combining the familiar shape of a map pin with the Stars and Stripes.

If the mark made a promise, what it pointed to kept it. Mount Vernon isn’t a monument to George Washington, it’s his home you walk through. The Udvar-Hazy Center doesn’t ration its collection to fit a gallery, it built a hangar big enough to hold all of it. And Wolf Trap is the only national park in the country dedicated entirely to the performing arts, a stage that couldn’t exist anywhere else.

“Start here” wasn’t just about location. It was an invitation to stop viewing history and start experiencing it.