“Destinations are always competing for visitors and footfall, so they need to stand out. I think people are becoming more interested in specific areas or parts of cities nowadays. In larger cities, there is more of a requirement for areas to have unique identities.”

Ryan Tym

This article found on design week is incredibly current and manages to shed light on the growing attraction around place branding.

From the article it seems that places are becoming increasingly more divided and competitive as time progresses. This creates a need for an identity, which most likely will come about naturally in most cases.

The article showcases a number of case studies and shows how a lot of successful place branding projects are powered by the people inhabiting that place. This has been said before many times in countless books, journals and articles.

A key point I have highlighted in this article is that a place brand has to please multiple people, which is a very difficult thing to do. For example, local residents, councillors, stakeholders and potential investors all need to be pleased with the final outcome of the brand, which is very rarely the case. Maybe this is why so many place branding projects fail to meet expectations.

Another interesting point made, is when there’s a disconnect between the local council and the brand they develop for the the place. This approach always seems to receive backlash from local residents, as often times the brand is a far cry from reality.

Source:

https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/1-7-april-2019/why-are-more-cities-and-towns-taking-on-place-branding/

• Brand – A type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name. ‘a new brand of soap powder’ – Oxford Dictionary

Above is the dictionary definition of the word brand. And although this is correct, I feel as if the word now means so much more, and is suitable in a range of varying contexts. This is why I feel I need to understand the basis of a brand, and the many components that make up said brand.

Above is an image taken from Alina Wheeler’s comprehensive branding guide, Designing Brand Identity. Yet again five core segments to the process, the first two involving research and strategy. The book isn’t specific to place branding, but branding as a whole, and I do feel these general steps do work no matter what the scale.

Research

The research stage of the process is arguably the most crucial, as this is where research on everything from target audience to current brand perception is addressed. The research stage really is the foundation for everything which follows. This time is also to discover your competition and your competitors. Within the context of place branding, finding you USP is crucial.

Strategy

Following the research stage, it’s time to develop such things as the brand’s mission statement, describing the overall brand vision and goal.

Design

The design is undertaken once a clear vision is set. The design is the framework and visual tone of the entire brand. Such things as logos, colour palettes and slogans will be created at this step. This is more or less the face of the brand.

Touchpoints

Touchpoints are where the brand communicates and interacts with its customers. For example, such touchpoints would be social media, packaging, customer service, events, advertisements and so on. I feel as if this is another crucial part of the process, as poor touchpoints can ruin a strong brand.

Management

The final step is managing the brand’s assets. This means keeping it consistent and making sure the brand is fulfilling the original vision. This also includes managing it’s growth and updating the brand to stay relevant.

Reflecting on my research, I feel as If my knowledge of what makes up a brand has improved significantly. I can implement these steps into my own project and explore areas such as planning my own coherent strategy, as I have never devised any brand strategy prior.

“Finding the right balance between showing off the best a city has to offer and sugarcoating a place’s less desirable aspects is a difficult task. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that effective place branding campaigns don’t come cheap.”

Barclay Ballard

I’ve now researched into a number of place/city branding case studies, and have noticed the difficulty to brand a place truthfully without showing the worst parts about it.

It seems local residents become upset when the place they call home is marketed like a product only to appeal to potential investors. When the process is carried out like this, it creates friction between the local government and the locals as the brand is evidently disingenuous.

I’m still unsure of the best way to navigate this throughout my own project. However this article states that it is integral that a place brand is not created in isolation by a marketing company, but with guidance from the people who live in the place.

Source: https://www.businessdestinations.com/destinations/place-branding-attracts-tourists-but-leaves-residents-resentful/

Here is a simple step by step guide to place branding, which clearly and coherently shows the process of how a project could potentially be approached. I find this incredibly helpful as place branding has many facets and areas to it, and it’s very easy to overlook them.

What struck me was the amount of planning that is required beforehand, such as having a clear vision and mission, along with a brand objective. I feel this level of detail isn’t apparent in the branding of products or even companies, and makes me think place branding is far more complex in that sense.

I can use this simple guide to help me throughout my project, and keep these key steps in mind as areas of research.

This article discusses the ‘International Place Branding Event Liverpool 2018’ and the debates such an event causes. The article, although a year old at this point highlights some key debates in the field, and has some useful quotes from the industry professionals who attended the event.

“The marketing and branding of places has never been more important and today cities, municipalities and countries need to be more visible and promote themselves to compete globally. We are also looking to highlight our city’s DNA to use it in our value-based marketing. The event in Liverpool will bring together a number of very interesting speakers on the subject of building successful places.”

Olle Zetterberg, CEO of Stockholm Business Region

I find this quote rather interesting due to him explicitly stating how important place branding is to locations. It seems only in the past decade that places have rapidly started branding themselves, trying to define themselves as similar to a product. It makes me wonder why it is only so recent that places are forming identities.

“Place branding has been extremely important here in Liverpool, and has helped us to build a real legacy off the back of a successful 2008. In an increasingly complex environment, destinations can’t rely on just having a nice logo or a catchy slogan; the destinations that understand this are often the ones which lead rankings for desirability amongst visitors and satisfaction of their residents.”

Chris Brown, Director of Marketing Liverpool

Brown reiterates a point made by such commentators as Anholt and Govers with this quote. He states that the best and most desirable places are the ones who don’t just simply create a logo and slogan but go beyond. I feel the main consensus on place branding today is that it is far more complex than a simple product or company, it is always evolving, and the logo and slogan should only ever be representative of what’s already there.

Source:

https://www.upthereeverywhere.com/blog/place-branding-its-not-about-the-logo

As I reflect on the work I have produced over the course of the two modules, I feel as if I have learned a lot about the design process, research methods and also a lot about myself as a practitioner.

For example, with the two modules I found myself questioning my own methods like I have never have before. I found it very helpful to mindfully analyse my own working methods and how I approach a create challenge. This mindfullness of my process helped me be incredibly thorough and allowed me to question my overall approach. Reflecting on my approach before this module, I would say it was fairly shallow and unfocused, as I think the way I worked was habit, and not tailored to the project or challenge enough. i’ve found that although it’s good to have a set step of the process. For example, research, experimentation, development and outcome. It may never be as straight forward as this, and you may need to come back a step or two as the idea or concept isn’t working.

I’ve also realised that in the past I would go through the process, but at a point choose a single direction to develop further. This means all my time would be spent developing a single idea and then as the deadline closes, I have one polished pitch, but the rest are yet to really be explored fully. This process has helped me realise this and that I should attempt to develop multiple ideas and not just one. Developing multiple ideas allows me to see the full potential of each idea, and explore the concept thoroughly. I have found myself choosing the idea and design I have spent most of my time developing, instead of perhaps the most suitable but underdeveloped one.

In regards to research methods, I was unaware of the breadth of methods to gather information. My research in the past had utilised the internet and the internet alone. I’ve learned that they are are a myriad of places to discover suitable research and this leads to a large amount of research which is strengthened by the different mediums the information is found.

My reflective post blog itself has also been incredibly helpful, as it’s a space for where I can reflect on my process and updates in the project. I think the blog is most useful to me to read back through after the initial writing, as rereading a reflective post as some time has past helps me understand it more so than when I have just constructed the text. It’s as if I’m reading with the intent to understand as opposed to thinking how I’m going to get my thought out into text in a coherent fashion.

Overall I think my project has had a successful start, and I’ve explored many key areas to help inform the rest of my work in the future modules. I believe what I have learned from the two modules will help me in the future, as I’m much more aware of the process of research, but also the many methodologies than can be employed within the research stage.

With my latest designs, I went for a bold and fresh look. This started with the logo, and transcended into the rest of the visual language.

I thought a bold and modern look would suit Middlesbrough well due to the rapid renovation of the town, and the modern aesthetic would encapsulate this moving forward and progressivness.

The issue I had when going for this was retaining that sharp and bold appearance within poster design along with imagery of smiling people. It seemed as if these two requirements created friction upon one another, and I wasn’t able to properly realise the design without looking too empty, or too complex.

I developed my ideas over time and took a few development cycles until I overcame the issue and seemed to strike a balance. I did by distilling the things that were crucial to the poster. This was the image of the person smiling, logo and a positive quotation. I then took inspiration from the angle of the smiles within the logo and this allowed me to use that angle as a background, tying it in with the logo, as well as giving the poster an overall bold look with a solid colour.

The varying bold colours used help differentiate each poster from one another, while retaining the same look. Reflecting on the poster designs, I do think they share the same tone and vibrancy as the logo.

I am continuing to develop the logo and overall feel of the brand, producing imagery and examples of how the brand works visually.

However, I have found that cycles of iteration works well within my design process. It seems as the more time I have away from a creation, I can then easily see it objectively and I’m able to see if it meets the requirements I have set.

This then means I can tweak and iterate upon it like I wasn’t able to see before. It seems as if there’s always something to be improved. I have adopted a cycle like approach with how I design throughout the project. By this I mean I finish a certain idea or concept, only to then come back and view it as an onlooker and not as the creator. This way of working has helped me develop my ideas to their upmost potential before moving onto another one.

I will continue using this method, as it is incredibly benificial.

Feedback on my development work presented in the form of my Pecha Kucha presentation helped direct me in a new direction regarding the branding.

The feedback helped me realise my logo could have a strong link with the imagery I choose to use and how they can link. The idea was to have the two O’s in Boro representative of smiles. This could be mirrored with imagery of people smiling, creating a strong relationship with the logo.

I have been developing the logo idea since and experimented with posters and relevant imagery.

I think this is a good concept as there’s an emotional reaction within the logo which helps establish the brands aims of being friendly, warm and welcoming.

I have sketched a number of thumbnails for poster designs and how I’d like them to look. Sketching the layout of posters first helps me move and change the layout easily. I much prefer this approach to on the computer which is similar to my logo design process.

I am now focusing on refining this idea and hopefully completing it to a good standard.

Within ‘Practice 1: Art and Design’ I was asked to bridge the distance regarding the project. I interpreted this by moving away from just logo design. So I set myself the challenge of creating and finishing a logo, moving on to building the rest of the brand.

I wanted this to be a short but useful exercise, not expecting to use what I have produced for my final outcome. This exercise helped me see where my branding will eventually go, which is helpful when designing the segments in isolation, as I feel I should be aware of the mediums they will be inhabiting eventually.

On completion of ‘bridging the distance’ I completed a small branding kit which I then applied over various mediums. Reflecting on the work produced, I think it relies much too heavily on the logo itself. I attempted to use the logo’s unique shape of Middlesbrough as borders and patterns, but I realised when applying it to such things as stationary, that the identity is rather flat and reliant on the shape and the shape alone.

Moving forward from this, I think I need to create brand elements to coincide with the logo in tone and aesthetics, as opposed to taking directly from it, as it leads to rather bland visuals.