Story Behind The Crow

Champion City Guide + Supply moved from our original location in the Tuttle Building to a new home at 36 North Fountain in the beginning of 2019. 

As we began a new venture with Champion City, we felt it was the right time for a brand refresh. We worked with our close partner, Andy Hayes / Hucklebuck Design Studio, to create a new graphic for our latest CCGS endeavor - thus, the crow.

Crows and Springfield have a rather interesting - you could even say toxic, at times - relationship. According the Ohio DNR website, Springfield is home to the largest grouping of crows - also known as a "murder" - in Ohio. Many residents have experience the rustling of crows in the trees lining our downtown city-scape in the early winter. The "toxic" part of the relationship "falls" from the crow- their droppings can be damaging to certain exterior features of buildings, cars, etc. Avoiding the trees or walking quickly, silently and with your head down usually works in your favor when passing them.

It's easy to focus on the negative; however, there is so much to appreciate about crows, too!

• Crows are extremely intelligent birds. They have the largest brain of all birds except for parrots
• When one crow dies, the murder will surround the deceased. This funeral isn’t just to mourn the dead, though. The crows gather together to find out what killed their member. Then, the murder of crows will band together and chase predators in a behavior called mobbing.
• Crows can recognize human faces and have been studied for this reason in correlation with surveillance technology. So don't mess with them - they'll remember you!
• Certain crows know how to read traffic lights. The birds have learned to take walnuts—a favorite treat—over to road intersections, where they put the hard-shelled snacks down onto the pavement. The crow then waits for a passing vehicle to smash the nut, after which it will swoop down and eat the delicious interior.

Since there's really no avoiding our dark feathered friend, we decided to embrace the bird and make it the unofficial mascot of downtown Springfield and our store.