City Branding

Google street view of two-story brick and stucco apartment building in Sun Valley neighborhood of Denver, Colorado.

Does Branding Play a Role in Redevelopment?

One Denver neighborhood’s massive redevelopment project includes a branding element. Is it necessary?

September 21, 2023 - Fast Company

Summer

Placemaking for Place Marketing

Looking to boost awareness of the special charms of your unique city? Look for chances to leverage placemaking when place marketing.

December 3, 2019 - Forbes

San Francisco Downtown

Private Branding of the Public City

Oracle Park, the Blue Shield of California Theater, Ford GoBike—branding abounds in San Francisco.

July 14, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

Chattanooga

Friday Funny: Chattanooga Says it's 'Literally Perfect'

City branding got jokes.

April 14, 2017 - CityLab

Moonshine, Basketball, and the Power of Place

Like a random encounter on the street, sometimes disparate ideas converge in interesting ways. Today, Kentucky Mist Moonshine and the Project for Public Spaces shed some light on municipal branding.

April 13, 2016 - PlaceShakers

The Lay of the Land in the Columbus Success Story

Aaron Renn recently explored Columbus, Ohio, where he found a city fueled by growth and doing many things right, but lacking the differentiation it merits among the country's urban marketplaces.

May 27, 2014 - Urbanophile

Ranking the Best City Brands

"The inaugural Guardian Cities brand barometer ranks world cities on everything from transport and weather to crime and social 'buzz.'" Guardian Cities released a trio of posts in connection with the rankings.

May 7, 2014 - Guardian Cities

Is Cleveland Too Negative?

A recent opinion article by Richey Piiparinen of the Center for Population Dynamics at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University says “Cleveland's negativity is a challenge to the city's future.”

April 17, 2014 - Cleveland.com

Japanese shipyard worker performs preservation work on ships air conditioning system.

Getting Stuff Done: What City Planning Is All About

How can cities and towns narrow the gap between promise and performance and, in doing so, build a solid brand? Ben Brown offers a one step to-do list: Get stuff done.

February 19, 2014 - PlaceShakers

What 'Second Cities' Teach About Branding

A recent news broadcast showed the mayor of Tacoma with a backdrop of the city of Seattle. The feeling of being hidden in the shadow of larger, older neighbor cities is familiar all over the world, but what are “kid sister” cities to do about it?

February 12, 2014 - New Geography

Festival Makes Crowdfunding a Community-Building Affair

An innovative event held recently in Jacksonville, Florida used a festival as a means to bring crowdfunding to the people; providing a platform for community building and branding in the process. Could this be the future of financing public projects?

August 15, 2013 - Urban Land

How City Branding Can Go Wrong

Will Doig considers the growing pressure cities face to build a marketable identity, and why that's a particular challenge for generally livable cities.

July 2, 2012 - Salon

A Look at the Country's Worst Municipal Branding Campaigns

Grist has asked its readers to help it compile some of the country's "most craptastic urban rebranding efforts ever." And boy have they delivered.

March 12, 2012 - Grist

Revilatization Through Graphic Design

Zak Stone reports on a campaign in Chattanooga, Tennessee to distill the city's artistic and entrepreneurial spirit into a font, and asks the question - can a font help a city make a comeback?

February 18, 2012 - Good

On the Ethos of City Branding: Or, Trying versus Being

As Cleveland takes on yet another effort in "rebranding", Richey Piiparinen looks at past schemes and finds it's better to keep it real.

February 16, 2012 - Rust Wire

The Challenge of City Branding

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.

October 18, 2011 - Terrain.org

How to Get People to Ride Transit

With car companies spending billions to promote their products, transit advocates have a lot to compete with. A new report from EMBARQ looks at how transit can rebrand and be sexy.

May 31, 2011 - World Resources Institute

Green Branding 101 for Cities

Marc Stoiber offers suggestions for bolstering a city's green image by looking at several cities across the globe that have found success at marketing their own sustainable urbanism programs and initiatives.

October 26, 2010 - GreenBiz

Portland: A Rose By Any Other Name

Every real estate developer and urban planner knows that Portland, Oregon rocks. It is probably our best civic example in the United States of defining a comprehensive growth strategy for its citizens and staying true to the vision.  The result is an authentic, creative, smart, home grown, artsy, sustainable, eco-friendly, colorful, self sufficient, vibrant, athletic, outdoorsy, walking, biking, multi-generational and experimental lifestyle downtown community where buildings, transit, waterfront festivals, park blocks, fountains, theaters, bookstores, galleries, music, crafts, food, wine, beer, coffee and people all blend together perfectly.  It really works here. But one thing was never done properly and needs to be changed to capture this spirit – the name of the city. 

August 11, 2009 - Rick Abelson

Branded Spaces Spreading

"Branded cities" -- new heavily-sponsored real estate developments with a mix of live- work- and retail-space -- are gaining popularity among developers and spreading around the country.

February 3, 2009 - Media Week

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.