A classroom assignment at Western Washington University has grown into something considerably more than a grade. What started as a business redesign project in 2023 has resulted in a full rebrand of Rome Bakery and Market, the century-old store at the corner of Sand Road and Mount Baker Highway in the small community of Rome, east of Bellingham in the Nooksack Valley foothills.

A Classroom Project That Left the Classroom

WWU Professor of Design Brittany Schade had driven past the Rome store many times on her way to Mount Baker ski area and thought it would make an interesting design challenge for her students. Known informally to locals as "the Rome store," the business has operated continuously at the same rural intersection since 1925, making it one of the longer-running commercial operations in eastern Whatcom County.

Schade typically assigns students to local businesses with brands that have not been updated in some time, asking them to do on-site research and develop a visual refresh. The goal is to give students experience working with real-world constraints and a real audience rather than hypothetical scenarios. Most of those redesign concepts never leave the classroom. This one did.

Grace Matson, a recent graduate of WWU's graphic design program, was assigned to the Rome store and chose to visit in person to get a feel for the place. She was drawn to the project because it was a small local business with genuine character, not a corporate chain with an established style guide to work within.

The Brand Refresh and What It Looks Like

Matson's redesign concept found what she described as the sweet spot between rustic country and friendly energy, two qualities that define the Rome store's identity and its appeal to both longtime local customers and the steady stream of skiers, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts who stop there on the way to and from Mount Baker.

The rebrand includes new typography, print materials, signage, and merchandise such as shirts and mugs. The design maintains the warm, unpretentious character that has made the store a local institution while giving it a visual consistency it lacked before. Brand characteristics like the typography on the espresso menu are now consistent across all customer touchpoints in the store, from printed menus to social media posts to signage visible from the road.

Working with a real client meant Matson had to navigate the practical side of design work that classroom projects skip: managing communication with Rome store owner Andrea Rowe, meeting deadlines while attending classes, and pricing her work fairly. Professor Schade coached her through the business side of the transaction, helping Matson understand how to bridge the gap between student work and professional practice.

"I had only ever really done design work for class up until that point," Matson said of the project. The experience gave her a professional credential and an ongoing client relationship. She continues to do small projects and updates for Rome Bakery and Market even after graduating.

The Rome Store's Place in Whatcom County

Rome Bakery and Market occupies a particular niche in the Whatcom County landscape. Located at Sand Road and Mount Baker Highway, it sits along the primary route to Mount Baker, one of the most heavily visited ski and recreation areas in Washington state. The store serves locals from the farming and rural residential communities along the highway corridor and also captures traffic from the thousands of weekend visitors heading to and from the mountain each year.

A business operating in the same location since 1925 carries a kind of community memory that larger commercial establishments rarely develop. The Rome store has seen generations of Whatcom County families stop in for coffee, baked goods, and supplies, and its continued operation represents the kind of small-scale rural commerce that is increasingly rare as rural economies consolidate and small businesses face pressure from larger competitors and changing consumer habits.

The rebrand project is an example of how Western Washington University connects its academic programs to the broader regional community in tangible ways. Design students gain experience, local businesses get professional-quality work, and the community ends up with a slightly more polished version of a place it already cares about. It is a modest outcome, but a genuinely useful one.

What Comes Next

Matson's ongoing involvement with Rome Bakery and Market means the visual identity will continue to evolve as new materials are needed. The store's social media presence, signage, and print collateral all now reflect the redesigned brand, giving the century-old business a look that can carry it through the next chapter of its history on the Mount Baker Highway.

For WWU design students interested in similar opportunities, Professor Schade's approach of assigning real local businesses offers a model worth paying attention to. The Rome store project demonstrates that community-embedded education can produce outcomes that benefit both students and the places they live and study in. More on Western Washington University's academic programs and community connections is available at the WWU News site. For other stories about local business and arts in Whatcom County, earlier coverage explored creative businesses and artists finding their footing across the county.