We’ve been calling Reno “The Biggest Little City in the World” for decades.
Officially adopted as Reno’s slogan in 1929, following a contest won by G.A. Burns of Sacramento.
Which is fine… if you want to be compared to bigger cities. Or if size is the key to your story.
But it isn’t. At least not anymore.
Ask people what Reno is today, and you’ll get a dozen answers. Tech hub. College town. Outdoor basecamp. Casino town. A little polished. A little rough around the edges.
In other words, everything. A “jack of all trades”, if you will.
And when you’re everything, you’re nothing in particular.
That’s not a branding problem. That’s an identity problem.
We’ve tried to solve it before. “A Little West of Center” might have been the closest we got. Not because it was perfect, but because it actually said something. It took a position.
And that made people uncomfortable. Well… those in power to decide how we should be represented, at least.
There’s a concept in Japanese aesthetics called Wabi-sabi – the idea that beauty lives in imperfection, impermanence, and the unfinished.
That tension isn’t a weakness.
It’s the whole story. It’s part of Reno’s story too.
Here’s the reality: the best brands don’t try to please everyone. They define something clearly enough that the right people lean in.
Reno isn’t one thing. It’s a collision of things.
Old and new. Grit and growth. Locals and transplants. Independence and reinvention.
That tension isn’t a weakness.
It’s our story. And it’s one everyone can relate to.
The question isn’t “What should Reno be?”
It’s whether we’re finally willing to say what we already are.