Branding a city, writes Scott Doyon, isn't as easy as creating a product brand. Cities already have identities, so a new brand can ring false if it isn't in harmony with reality. Case in point: Dunwoody, Georgia.
Dunwoody recently released a new logo and slogan, which looks remarkably like the Walmart logo and has received "less than flattering" feedback, according to Doyon:
"Like any organization, cities yearn to present themselves. To embody their complex wholeness in snappy visual shorthand. To brand themselves."
The problem is that the desire to present an image can often be aspirational and conflict with the actual image of the city:
"...cities are living organisms, built upon evolving visions with a legacy of past behaviors and no shortage of current, on-the-ground realities, which means-like it or not-they already have a brand."
Read the full story: Defining the City: On Being and Becoming
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Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello