In Melbourne at the recent AGIdeas conference, I was reminded of the launch of Melbourne's recent rebrand recently, a dynamic logo that really represents Melbourne's commitment to design. It got me wondering about what we have here in Brisbane - does our branding really represent what we're all about in Brisvegas?
A lot of scouring the internet later and I found that Brisbane had recently launched a new brand with the tagline 'Australia's New World City' - but not to a lot of fanfare. And I can see why - while the Melbourne branding is elegant, dynamic and representative of what makes Melbourne unique, the Brisbane brand is... safe. It doesn't make any out there statements about who we are or who we would like to be. But maybe that's because we don't know yet?
Following on from this, I recently read on the Map magazine website about the citid project. The project is crowd sourcing logos for cities all around the world, asking people to design a logo that they think best represents their town. The idea is to raise awareness of some of the less well known towns and end up with a logo for every city in the world. It's really interesting to see how people identify with their cities, for example a large number of the logos feature trains - demonstrating an affiliation with public transport. If you could re-do the Brisbane logo, what would you want to say?
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Very good post Claire. I completely agree, upon moving to Brisbane from Sydney just two years ago, I was quite disappointed on how Brisbane was presenting themselves to the world. It seems that we have to come to Brisbane before we understand how creative & dynamic this city has become.
ReplyDeleteSydney offers a very straight forward brand with a clear image. It works extremely well for what Sydney has to offer and it's "SYDNICITY" campaign is brilliant.
Brisbane on the other hand has a very big jump to make for it to be ready to compete with the world in recognition for creativity. We may have these wonderful creative spaces and people, but how does the world know this?
The Australian Institute of Architects is in collaboration with HEAT Queensland a green architecture initiative run by the Queensland Government's Creative Industries to assist Queensland Architectural Firms be internationally recognised for their fantastic work and significant contribution to our environment, communities and industry.
This initiative has helped many architects far and wide of Queensland become more confident in themselves and worldwide thanks to the assistance. Sydney or Melbourne don't seem to have any similar assistance in place, but that's what makes Queensland so special and especially Brisbane, many creative universities and art spaces around the beautifully designed city, but nothing to sell it.
If I had the opportunity to re-develop the Brisbane logo, I would be selling the large creativity side of Brisbane as well as the carefully planned city and community setting, it's what makes our environment enjoyable.