Design Management and Professional Practice

(1)

Brand Identities for Cities

Article in The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice · March 2014

DOI: 10.18848/2325-162X/CGP/v07i01/38597

CITATIONS

4

READS

8,743

2 authors, including:

Octaviyanti Wahyurini

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember 10PUBLICATIONS 16CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Octaviyanti Wahyurini on 27 August 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

(2)

The International Journal of

Design Management

and Professional Practice

DesIgnPrIncIPlesanDPracTIces.coM

__________________________________________________________________________

Brand Identities for Cities

Enhancing Graphic Designer Expertise in City Branding Practice

OCTAVIYANTI WAHYURINI AND KARTIKA WARDANI

(3)

First published in 2013 in Champaign, Illinois, USA by Common Ground Publishing

University of Illinois Research Park 2001 South First St, Suite 202 Champaign, IL 61820 USA www.CommonGroundPublishing.com ISSN: 2325-162X

All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the applicable copyright legislation, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact

<cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com>.

The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

(4)

Designer Expertise in City Branding Practice

Octaviyanti Wahyurini, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia Kartika Wardani, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia

Abstract: City branding has emerged as a unique branding practice within the last decade, encouraging research in related disciplines such as place marketing, urban development, visual communication, and graphic design. Although the graphic design field has played a significant role in creating a city’s visual identity, graphic design as a stand-alone practice will not be accounted as an effective engagement in city branding development. Therefore, graphic designers should be encouraged to actively and comprehensively collaborate with other disciplines in order to produce sustainable and successful city branding. City branding has become recognized as vital to a city’s tourism economy, and graphic designers have been detached from the city branding team hierarchy to primarily serve an outcome, rather than regarded as an essential element to the whole city branding process. Place marketing scholars restrain the graphic designer expertise to produce an impactful visual identity that leads to a successful city branding strategy. In fact, graphic designers are qualified to be involved in city branding strategy as they have design thinking skills which is the embodiment of skills of research, creative thinking and visual thinking. This research project draws on skills in visual research, design research and graphic design thinking, to expose how graphic design is vital to all facets of city branding development, drawing on case studies of successful and unsuccessful city branding strategies. It examines the work of influential city brand identity designers and case studies of graphic design students’ studio project to approach a model of city logo development. The outcome of this research will be a guideline for city visual identity development within a graphic design context that is beneficial for city governments, place marketers, graphic design consultants, advertising bureau, graphic design educators, and graphic design students or parties that are interested in developing successful city branding strategies.

Keywords: Design, Learning, Problem Solving

Introduction

he strategy of city branding has been recognised by city authorities as a strategic way to be competitive with other world cities. Ashworth and Kavaratzis (2009) explain that a city branding strategy should be part of a comprehensive framework that engages city authorities, marketing consultants, graphic designers, stakeholders such as investors, local universities and city residents in order to make the project sustainable and reach its goal. Current city branding practice has been isolated to marketing and advertising activities, making graphic design a mere service to city branding development (Ashworth and Kavaratzis 2009, 522). This fails to recognise the importance of integrated branding strategies that engage the involvement of graphic designers within the entire development process of city branding strategies (Wahyurini 2012).

Based on the analysis of numerous city branding strategies, it becomes clear that in the majority of cases, the function of graphic designers in city branding is primarily to act as the

“technician” or the “facilitator” so that their involvement in defining the design problem and formulating the solution is limited (Paton and Dorst 2011, 578). Graphic designers may be brought in as “technicians” at the end of the project, when they are obliged to execute a firmly defined client’s brief, rather than to clarify core aspects (Paton and Dorst 2011, 578). As

“facilitators”, graphic designers are brought in near the end of the project, when the client understands what they need but they do not know how to achieve their goal. In this scenario, graphic designers are allowed only a partial contribution by framing the solution space. There is a general lack of understanding of the graphic designer’s role as a vital component within the larger context of city branding development.

T

The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice Volume 7, 2013, www.designprinciplesandpractices.com, ISSN 2325-162X

(5)

This research proposes the need for a broader understanding of the role of graphic design and graphic designers in city branding strategies. Currently, the role of graphic designers has expanded, and they have been challenged to apply their design thinking skill to answering complex non-design problems (Brown and Katz 2011, 381-382). Brown (2008, 1) describes design thinking as:

a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity. (Brown 2008, 1)

Brown is not alone in his validation of graphic design thinking. Dorst (2011, 524-525) explains that the way designers solve problems within the design thinking process is different to conventional problem solving. Utilised design thinking involves a series of problem-solving steps that starts from 1) ‘induction’: to set a design frame; 2) ‘abduction’: to design objects, systems, services; 3) ‘deduction’: to review the compatibility of the design frame with the system in order to produce the desired value (Dorst 2011, 524-525). This way of thinking enables designers to work in various areas of expertise, dealing with more complex problems in the modern world, such as poverty in Africa, or global warming in the Artic. Brown and Katz (2011, 382) believe that competent graphic designers acquire a set of tools of inspiration, ideation and implementation that enables them to be involved in areas beyond crafting a logo or producing fancy graphic outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to examine a graphic designers’ role in the broader sense when looking at the city branding process.

This research consists of two different but related parts; a dissertation, and a textbook proposal. The dissertation has six sections; Introduction, Contextual Review, Methodology, Materials and Process, Significance and Conclusions. The introduction discusses the problems in current city branding practice and how they relate to the engagement of the graphic designers as a vital element in the process. The Contextual Review section explains the scholarly approach to current city branding practice and proposes graphic designers involvement in this practice. The Methodology section describes graphic design thinking in action as a methodology/ consultancy, not just as an outcome, and it describes the concept and production process of the handbook. The Significance and Conclusion sections argue that graphic design and graphic designers’

involvement in all aspects of city branding strategy are imperative to construct a successful city brand, and proposes possible future research.

The other part of this research, the textbook, sets out guidelines for developing strategies for city branding within graphic design practice which is intended for graphic design students, graphic design educators, graphic design consultants, city authorities, place marketers and any other parties that have concern about city branding practice. The guidelines consist of three sections: 1) introduction to city branding strategy and the engagement of graphic design practice;

2) research and development; 3) implementation. The first section explains what city branding practice is, and why the engagement of graphic designers for the process of city branding development is significant in producing successful city branding. The second section explores the research strategies and creative practice of graphic designers when developing city brand identities. The third section discusses branding implementation and strategies needed to make the brand sustainable. This research, therefore, contributes to building an understanding of the graphic designers’ professional practice.

Contextual Review

Graphic Designer’s Engagement in City Branding Practice

As discussed in the previous section, place marketing commentators (Ashworth and Kavaratzis 2009, 522) point out that current city branding practice tends to locate city logo and slogan creation as the main objective and overlook city branding as part of a city’s strategic long-term

(6)

development plan. Place marketing practitioners such as Gregory Ashworth and Mihalis Kavaratzis (2010, 234-239) strongly recommend that city branding should be approached through community-based strategies that engage stakeholders and the community from the beginning. In this matter, Ashworth and Kavaratzis (2010, 526-527) also suggest that the Anholt’s GfK City Brand Index may be an approach for determining the effectiveness of a city branding strategy.

The annual Anholt’s GfK City Branding Index (Anholt, cited in Wahyurini 2012, 81) is a tool that measures the effectiveness of the city branding strategy of fifty world cities in twenty- five different countries. This index calculates the city’s performance by six parameters:

1) Presence (city’s international recognition, and its familiarity to people) 2) Place (physical performance)

3) Potential (in terms of economic and education sectors) 4) Pulse (urban lifestyle, how exciting the city is) 5) People (hospitality and safety issues)

6) Pre-requisites (living cost and price of accommodation) (Anholt, cited in Wahyurini 2012, 81)

Figure 1. City Logos of Anholt-GfK Roper City Brand Index 2011

(Wahyurini, 2012)

Paris, as one of the world’s ‘alfa cities’ has been ranked top in Anholt’s GfK City Brand Index (2011) for three consecutive years. Australia’s large cities are in the index, with Sydney in the third place and Melbourne in the 8th (Kakaiya 2011).

Although in many cases city brand identities are significant in building a positive image of a city, place marketing commentators such as Hospers (2010, 32) and Insch (2010, 10) claim that monuments, buildings, sculptures, public art spaces, and events are a city’s tangible assets that may be more effective for building a city’s profile. They argue that a city must build distinctive and specific ‘physical objects’ that make the city embed to brand and also create the city as an ideal place for living, education, work, business, tourism and entertainment.

It is also important to recognise the city brand identity as a tangible asset of a city. An effective city brand identity, as a ubiquitous image, has the power to move across cultural and spatial boundaries and reflect the city’s positive core values. The evidence of this claim is the Milton Glaser’s I [heart] New York logo that has been duplicated in a massive and various ways around the globe, through the production of merchandise such as t-shirts, stickers, and more (Wahyurini 2012, 82). Milton Glaser, a reputable and an influential American graphic designer, with his outstanding graphic design thinking, designed the I [heart] New York logo in the mid 1. Paris 2. London 3. Sydney 4. New York 5. Los Angeles

6. Rome 7. Washington

D.C.

8. Melbourne 9. Vienna 10. Tokyo

(7)

1970s as a part of New York City tourism campaign. This example illustrates that a city branding strategy should acknowledge the contribution of well-trained and skilful graphic designers as a vital element in the whole city branding process to create powerful visual identities for cities.

Marketing practitioners have often failed to recognise the graphic designers’ key contribution by isolating their role near the end of the city branding process instead of engaging them from the beginning. According to Bill Baker, a place marketing practitioner and the author of a destination branding book, city branding is too complex to be left to graphic designers alone.

He rejects the idea of letting the graphic designers direct a city branding strategy. He claims that they do not have adequate ability and knowledge to direct a city branding strategy that will lead to a successful city branding implementation (personal communication, August 14 2012).

Required Skills in City Branding

City branding practice requires a broad knowledge in marketing research and branding strategies, therefore graphic designers should enhance their skills within these areas. Creating brand identity, as explained by Wheeler (2010, 90-91), consists of several stages; the first stage of creating a brand identity is research, and the second stage is ‘clarifying strategies’. The aim of the research stage is to understand the city’s elements—city council, the people and other stakeholders—through both quantitative and qualitative research. It is vital to understand how the city sees itself and how it would like to be perceived. Lau and Leung (2010, 134-135) suggest that designing a city’s visual identity is therefore a participatory process and the absence of this could lead to ineffective design solutions.

In the clarifying strategies phase, all of the results from the research and auditing process is utilised to develop an idea that leads to a branding strategy. Lawson and Dorst (2009, 50) and Wheeler (2009, 116-117) explain this is a phase where graphic designers prompt the client to focus on a selective design situation and temporarily take hold of some issues in regards of client’s strategic plan, financial situation, and other related circumstances. Graphic designers as consultants have a fundamental role in facilitating an agreement and mutual understanding with the clients in order to set a design outcome. Hence, it is important for a graphic designer to master branding skills so that they become more involved in formulating three different branding scenarios: ‘a clearly defined brand strategy’, ‘a need to redefine brand strategy’ or ‘a need to create brand strategy’ (Wheeler 2009, 117).

Once the brand brief has been agreed upon, the next phase is to design visual identities. This phase requires: visual research skills; the ability to perform a research-based graphic design which embodies semiotics, analysis, communication theory, systematic approaches, semantics and discourse theory. This phase will lead to the development of a successful design solution (Noble and Bestley 2011, 13-15). These skills make up the core competency of graphic designers, allowing them to extract the positive image of a city articulated through an effective visual identity for a city brand.

Research and Development for Branding Cities

Research

In current city branding practice, the city council hires a marketing consultant to discuss city branding strategy. The marketing consultant starts developing the strategy thorough a series of research programs to assess and audit the city; this is followed by the analysis and definition of the branding themes, which will be formulated into one or two pages of a marketing brief for a meeting with graphic designers in a briefing session. The graphic designer’s creative process moves through: 1) briefing; 2) interpretation; 3) idea generation; and 4) presentation (Tan and Melles 2010, 465-466). Briefing, the first initial contact between the client and the designer, is a crucial stage because it aims for a mutual understanding of the project’s criteria and objectives,

(8)

and an agreement on timetable and budget (Tan and Melles 2010, 465; Paton and Dorst 2011, 578).

Figure 2. Case Study Investigation Overview

(Tan and Melles 2010, 466: Figure 1)

The marketing consultant as the representative of the city council explains the branding strategy to the graphic designers and the briefing frame strategies for obtaining the branding objectives.

Paton and Dorst (2011) state that the aim of briefing is to:

… reframe both the client’s and designer’s preliminary appreciation of the situation in order to create an actionable view of the project for both parties. Ideally this view includes: a desired end state or goal; prioritization and selection of relevant features;

problem scope, solution scope and resource constraints; and projected value. (Hey, Joyce, & Beckman, 2007, cited in (Paton and Dorst 2011, 575)

Paton and Dorst (2011, 578) further explain that in the ‘briefing’ session between the client and the designer on a branding project, the ideal graphic designers’ role is as an ‘Expert/Artist’, in which they are brought in half way through the project and actively work together with their client to formulate the outcome. In my teaching experience as a unit coordinator of a City Branding studio project for third year students, the application of the briefing process within the design school’s project gave the students the role of both marketing consultant and graphic designer.

This situation gave them opportunity to meet the city council as their clients and the city stakeholders in order to gather necessary information and gain insights into the project (See Figure 4).

(9)

Figure 3. Town of Ngawi City Branding Team Meeting with Ngawi City Council

(City Branding Ngawi 2008)

They were thus able to practice their skills as the ‘Expert/Artist’ since they had the dual role of marketing consultant and graphic designer. The advantage of this exercise is that the students can develop their marketing and branding skills and apply them to a real project with a real client.

Development

The development stage covers two phases; interpretation and idea generation. Tan and Melles (2010, 466) define this as the expertise space of a graphic designer. Within the interpretation stage, graphic designers analyse the written brief and the discussion notes from the briefing session.

The next stage is idea generation, where designers start practical work towards the brief.

This is the stage of creative thinking; the stage where the designers interpret the problem and develop the design outcomes through a series of creative workshops, by doing mind maps, drawing, writing, sketching, or doing mood boards; they collaborate and consult with other experts regarding the technique and materials, the post-production and the visualisation of idea concepts (Tan and Melles 2010, 466; Lupton 2011).

Tan and Melles (2010, 466) suggest that the designer’s role is a Technician/ Facilitator;

therefore they do not necessarily refine the initial marketing research, and rely only on audio recording and observational notes in the briefing session. On the contrary, this thesis argues that graphic designers should be actively engaged in city branding by doing further observations and shifting to Expert/Artist mode. Lauren P. Adams (Adams, cited in Lupton 2011, 56) encourages graphic designers to carry out immersive research to modify and inform the client’s initial brief, as this will allow the designers to generate a focused solution. The observations do not necessarily cover the entire initial research, but confirm and refine what is on the marketing brief and reframe the project’s objectives.

Mike Rawlinson is a designer at City Id design in Bristol in the United Kingdom. In his project ‘Legible City’ he worked on the design of environmental graphic system in urban areas (Creative Review: Designing Legible City 2008). This project had worked in Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol and Dublin and now this project is heading to Southampton.

Mike Rawlinson in an interview with Creative Review magazine explains, he was trying to discover what those cities required, by considering local characteristics and factors such as economy and transport. It is a method that combined design thinking and an understanding of the user’s requirements. Rawlinson believes that each place is unique, and it does not share the same problem with other places. By understanding local values of a place, it may impose new, fresh and genuine ideas. Creating visual identities of a city is not merely to gain marketing objectives.

(10)

The people’s aspiration helps refine city’s path on its relevance to the economy and not only for visitors or tourist. Residents should be embraced and attach to the city instead of feeling alienated.

On his project to create visual identities for Southampton, Rawlinson and his team conducted research by exploring the city, interviewing residents, and examining its web presence. To deal with Southampton’s complex structure, Rawlinson and his team invented information ‘thread’ or a wayfinding ‘thread’. They classify places into points of interest or facilities such as markets, schools, or entertainment spots. This case shows how the designer as an expert has an involvement and fully engaged with the project by conducting an observational research.

Figure 4. Southampton Legible City Project-City Id

Creative Review: Designing Legible City 2008

Along with Dalton Maag’s designers, Rawlinson worked the graphic for Southampton. They were using pictograms and sans serifs types in order to communicate city’s features within European ambience. In selecting types for Southampton visual identity, Dalton Maag did a number of trials and came with alternatives of ‘bookish’, ‘retrospective’, ‘delicate’ or ‘informal’.

Typography should work together with pictograms. Instead of adopting the city’s local football clubs’ colors, this team created system from the scratch to give a distinctive identity for the city.

(11)

Range of sea greens is selected and so are other colours to represent certain facets of the city itself.

Another case study to illustrate the development phase of city branding strategy is a city branding project conducted by a group of graphic design students of Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) for the city of Ponorogo (Lakoro, Wahyurini, and al 2010), a small city in East Java province in Indonesia that has a long and unique story about Warok, the courageous local warriors, and a traditional dance performance called Reyog Ponorogo. The team visited one of the most influential Reyog Ponorogo dance artisans in order to gain a deeper understanding of the culture.

Figure 5. A Discussion Session with a Reyog Ponorogo Dance Artisan

(City Branding of Ponorogo 2009)

The aim of the city brand concept was to visualise the strong character of the Ponorogo people, their natural resources, and the local culture of Ponorogo, by creating a logogram that was inspired by the figure of Dadak Merak (peacock), and a bold logotype inspired by the assertiveness of the Reyog Ponorogo legend. Each group member articulated the ideas and generated alternatives for the interpretation of the creative brief. They formed an ideas pool by posting their designs on a Facebook page, and they encouraged people to leave comments and give feedback.

(12)

Figure 6. City of Ponorogo Preliminary Design

(Visual Communication Design Project 4: City Branding of Ponorogo 2010)

Through the ideas pool, they discovered that alternatives 1 and 2 were the favourites.

However, after consulting with their tutors, they decided to modify alternative 2 and replace the logotype with alternative 1. The bracket of the logotype portrays the shape of the Samandiman Whip, King Kelono Sewandono’s sacred weapon that he used to defeat his enemy, the Singa Barong (Lakoro, Wahyurini, et al. 2010).

Figure 7. The Ponorogo City Logo

(Visual Communication Design Project 4: City Branding of Ponorogo 2010)

The case study shows that as graphic designers do more research to understand the project, the possibilities for generating ideas and helping the client articulate the project outcome to be extended. The development stage should be thought of as a playground for designers to foster creative ideas.

(13)

Implementation

In the implementation stage, designers give a presentation on project outcomes in two- dimensional visual presentations or in 3D animations or three dimensional mock-ups (Tan and Melles 2010, 466-471; Lupton 2011, 136). This is when the designers explain the visual outcomes to get the client’s approval and feedback, and it is also a time for the designers to discuss and negotiate any possible reframing of the project outcomes.

Paton and Dorst (2011, 586) suggest that the presentation stage can facilitate reframing with the clients and extend graphic designers’ roles from the Technician/Facilitator into Expert/Artist ones. Paton and Dorst explain that the significance of this phase is “to shift the client from viewing the situation as a problem-solving exercise, to deconstruct presuppositions and loosen client fixation on a particular outcome, and to create dialogical ways of interacting with the stakeholders and the situation” (Paton and Dorst 2011, 586). Thus, it is important to have the decision-makers from the client’s party participate in this session in order to adapt the new frame (Paton and Dorst 2011, 582).

After design and initial outcomes are agreed on by the clients, the logo is ready for a

“Rollout”, setting scenarios for the logo’s applications by creating an identity standards manual.

The main function of the manual is to guarantee a consistent application of the logo and other supporting visual elements and ensure that the same standard of presentation that was created by the original designers is observed in any media chosen by the client (Morioka 2004, 80).

Designers must supervise the application of the logo and other supporting visual materials to ensure that the logo is successfully reproduced, and while they collaborate with all outside consultants, in-house departments, be prepared to modify the system as needed.

The effectiveness of this way of working is reflected in our experience as tutors in the city branding studio project for a group of third year graphic design students in 2008. The students were developing a city branding strategy for Ngawi, a municipal city with slow economic growth located on the border between East Java and Middle Java provinces, Indonesia.

By the research, they found that Ngawi was losing their skillful worker as its young and educated people choose to live and work outside Ngawi. On the other hand, Ngawi is also well known as the place to study pre-historic humans; the Pithecanthropus Erectus, in its site called Trinil. Based on this asset, this group was projecting Ngawi as a pre-historic tourism destination (Wahyurini and al 2009). The design result was presented to the Mayor of Ngawi, Harsono, whom was very delighted with the team’s effort. The city council then accommodated the brand identity idea; and asked to a local artisan to make some modifications.

Figure 8. Ngawi Pre-historic Journey Logo

(Visual Communication Design Studio 4 Project: City branding of Ngawi 2009)

(14)

Figure 9. Ngawi Ramah

(suarangawi 2010)

Research Methods

The methodology applied in this research is a mixture of case study and action research; these are analysed utilising a hermeneutics approach. The hermeneutics approach draws upon a ‘critical lens’ (Crouch and Pearce 2012, 59-61); critiquing ‘existing ideological or institutional operations’ (Crouch and Pearce 2012, 62) in city branding practice. This research aims to understand the inequality with which graphic designers are positioned in city branding development process and to explore how a well-trained graphic designer is capable of collaborating with other disciplines within this area.

Utilising case study methodology will be allowed for the examination of current city branding development process, destination branding strategies, and brand identity development;

and to evaluate the gap among destination marketing practitioners and graphic designers. It also aims to explore and understand the application of design thinking and graphic designer’s expertise within city branding practice. Mark Rawlison’s Legible City Id project (Creative Review: Designing Legible City 2008) is an example that by the implementation of the design thinking skills, a graphic designer can create environmental graphic design that facilitates the need of the targeted audiences. The City of Melbourne brand identity (City of Melbourne 2009;

Little 2010) also supports this thesis’s argument that engaging graphic designers throughout the city branding process particularly in regards to the setting of the brand strategy will produce highly effective brand outcomes.

The action research methodology draws on my experience as graphic design educator and my personal communications with city branding practitioners. My three years experience as Unit Coordinator and Tutor, from 2007 to 2009 for a city branding studio project in a state university in Indonesia will help describe the application of city branding as a studio project for third year graphic design students. The City of Ngawi and City of Ponorogo (Wahyurini and al 2009;

Lakoro, Wahyurini, and al 2010) studio projects were the ideal examples of students’ projects as they were able to apply their design thinking skills therefore creating effective design solutions..

The City of Ngawi branding team were able to draw upon Ngawi’s world-class pre-historic heritage thus giving the local authorities strong and effective ideas to develop a brand for Ngawi (Wahyurini and al 2009). The City of Ponorogo branding team proposed a comprehensive brand strategy that was supported by appealing graphic outcomes inspired by local culture.

My personal communications with city branding practitioners and branding book authors deconstruct the process of city branding development and explain the involvement of graphic designers in the industry. The discussion with a printing company in Indonesia (A. Yuliyanto, personal communication, July 26 2012). regarding book cost production and stock availability

(15)

and printing trials on paper stocks are part of my design method to develop a text book which is a contextualisation of my thesis.

Current city branding practice recognises graphic designers merely as a visual agent, and their capacity in thinking and research has been neglected. City branding development should be acknowledged as collaborative work of a branding team that comprises of city council as clients, place marketers, branding strategist, graphic designers, the stakeholders, citizens and other communities in order to attain its objective (Wahyurini 2012, 92). It is important for all parties to have mutual position in the brand strategy development process. Based on the discussion of the case studies in the previous section, it is also important to engage the graphic designers by allowing them to apply their design thinking skills in the research stage and helping frame the problem thus developing a design solution.

In order to prepare the graphic designers to-be for the graphic design industry, design school studio projects would ideally be operated as design laboratories. Based on my experience as a design educator, a studio project should be able to create simulation of the real graphic design project that can give the graphic students knowledge of their role within professional world.

Exercises in the studio project should be designed to develop their skills in other disciplines since

‘design is a broad and varied discipline housing many sub disciplines beneath it’ (Hampson 2012, 4); hence helping them understand the multiple roles and disciplines involved in the industry.

This section has explained the stages of city branding development and has proposed the graphic designer’s involvement in each stage. It is argued that destination marketing practitioners are not optimising the graphic designer’s design thinking skills that can make a significant contribution to city branding development. It is important for graphic designers to enhance their marketing and branding skills so that they become a vital element in city branding development.

The next section will discuss the city brand identity model within a graphic design approach.

City Branding Development within Graphic Design Approach

Alina Wheeler, a graphic designer and branding practitioner, explains that a branding process will not be successful if there is no engagement between the client, creative director, designers and brand strategists (Wheeler 2009, vi). Wheeler proposes a model for the brand identity development process that is simple but comprehensive and is in line with Bill Baker’s city branding framework (Baker 2007, 73; Wheeler 2009, 90-91). This model supports this research argument as it involves a graphic designer and recognises the importance of the graphic designer’s role in the city branding strategy.

Figure 10. Brand Identity Development Process by Alina Wheeler

(Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team 2009, 90-91)

(16)

The Sydney branch of Landor Associates, a highly reputable brand consultant, possibly adopted this model to develop the City of Melbourne brand strategy. The City of Melbourne council asks Landor to develop a brand strategy and new visual identity system (Behance Network 2009).

This new identity should be able to impose an image of Melbourne nationally and internationally and project the city as the centre of desirable shopping experiences, leisure, education, arts and culture. For the previous fifteen years, the city council had unsystematically developed various kinds of logo to represent its wide range of services, and these had become hard to manage and costly to maintain.

Figure 11. City of Melbourne Previous Identities

(Behance Network 2009)

The objectives of the Landor project are to portray Melbourne as a modern, sophisticated, and internationally reputable city, to deal with issues of political impenetrability and cost- effectiveness in managing the brand and to connect incongruous entities. Before the team started to actually design the identity, they did an audit of the opinions of local business owners and community representatives about the city. Jason Little was the creative director for this project, and along with his team member, they designed a bold “M” as the outcome. This “M” logo comes in a range of colorful presentations to express the diversity of Melbourne’s assets and entities (Melbourne: Designing a Flexible and Future-Focused Image 2010).

The impact of this new identity system has been to boost the City of Melbourne’s Anholt’s GfK City Branding Index Ranking from 15th place in 2010 up to 8th in 2011; it has also accomplished its global recognition as the 2nd most livable city in the EIU’s 2011 Global Livability Report, and ninth in Monocle Magazine’s Livable Cities Index 2010 (Song 2010).

Figure 11. Melbourne City Branding

(17)

Figure 12. Identity System of Melbourne City Branding

However, this model does not state explicitly the centrality of the designer’s creative role in the city logo development phase. Although it is important for graphic design graduates to have proper knowledge of branding research skills, designers should not forget their nature: creating aesthetically pleasing solutions (Tonkinwise 2011, 542). Therefore, the guidelines proposed in this research will include discussion of visual research skills as a part of graphic design conceptualization skills.

Methods and Materials

The Project: The City Logo Development Guidelines

The aim of these guidelines is to educate the third year graphic design students about the involvement of graphic design practice within city branding development strategy. City branding, as a theme for studio project is a good exercise for third year students as it underpins on knowledge of marketing communication, branding, and visual communication. City branding as a studio project theme also encourages the students to conduct quantitative and qualitative research that engage other disciplines such as marketing and branding, communication and social-culture.

(18)

Title 1.1: Book Specification

Format Paperback, softcover

Paper Newsprint Papers 48 gsm

Samson/Recycled Papers 90 gsm Matte papers 110 gsm

Colors Tri-colours, full colours

Target Market Graphic design students, graphic design educators, graphic design practitioners, branding practitioners, city councils, in Indonesia

Language Indonesian

Content 1) Overview

Understanding city branding

City branding and corporate branding 2) The Role of the Graphic Designer

Graphic designer’s imperatives in city branding practice Required skills in city branding strategy

3) Research and Development

Conducting research & clarifying the strategy Designing identity & creating possible applications 4) Implementation

Managing assets (Wahyurini, 2012)

Papers and Printing

The target audience of this book is graphic design students in Indonesia, who mostly cannot afford to buy design books that are luxury publications with hardback covers, for which the usual price is more than thirty dollars (300,000 rupiahs). “The book price should be under ten dollars or no more than 100,000 rupiahs for students to be able to afford it”, (D. Koeswanto, personal communication, June 6 2012). Elizabeth Resnick’s book Graphic Design Basics (Resnick 2003) gave me the inspiration to combine black-white and full colour pages. This book has insertions of high-resolution images with matte papers while other pages are printed in black and white. To attain a cheaper book price, a combination of black/white and full-colour pages and alternative paper materials other than matte papers will be considered.

In Indonesia, there is a material that is used for scratch papers, textbooks and newspapers called ‘stencil’ or ‘CD’ paper. It is similar to newsprint paper but a bit thicker, and the fibre is not as dense; therefore, it does not absorb the ink (S. Sayatman, personal communication, June 6 2012). However, as it will not support high-resolution coloured images, the inclusion of matte papers is still needed for some pages of the book.

Book Design

The decision for the design of the book layout was based on the materiality of the book. As previously explained, the guideline book will be produced in newspaper-like stocks in order to reduce the cost production, whilst the test print also shows that the stocks work very well in tri- tone colours. These recommendations have influenced the decision to apply the Swiss International Style to design the book layout. This design style is popular with geometrical shapes, basic tri-tone colours and Helvetica typefaces (Meggs 2006, 366-370).

The Information Design Handbook by Jenn and Ken Visocky O’ Grady (2008) also inspired us in regards to the lay out and the navigation. This book lay out is five-columns; formed in a

(19)

20x21 cm square shape. Different colours are used for navigation and as tonal for tri-tone images. The size is easy to carry yet has adequate space to place figures.

The guidelines are intended to operate as a work-book for third year graphic design students;

with interactive exercises in order to gain a deeper understanding towards the city branding practice. Exercises are built in the form of activities that will also encourage the readers to actively participate in the learning process. Therefore, it is designed in a visual manner that aims to draw readers’ attention and engage them in the exercises.

Figure 13. Designing Brand Identities for Cities: Essential Guidelines to the Development of Visual Identities within Graphic Design Practice

(Wahyurini, 2012)

Conclusions

This research will enhance city branding studies within visual communication design context.

Scholarly discussions on city branding studies are mostly conducted by marketing and tourism scholars whilst there are only few discussions about city branding in regards on visual communication design practice conducted by design practitioners and design academics. The Visual Communication Design with its design thinking advantages plays significant roles in city branding studies regarding the visual development of brand identity, advertising campaign, and promotional items.

This research is also to give contribution to city authorities on city branding development.

City branding is a huge investment that needs to be managed carefully and should be acquired in the city strategic development plan. A successful city branding will boost city economy by the raising of tourism industries, investments, educations, residents, and events. This research is also

(20)

to enhance Design studies, particularly to develop a visual communication discourse on city branding strategy scholarly discussion.

City branding should be considered as a collaborative project between the city councils, brand strategist, graphic designers and local communities to make it successful and attain its goal. It is important to recognize the significance of the graphic designers involvement in city branding strategy therefore bring the mutual understanding towards graphic designers expertise.

The actual city branding practice has underestimated the role of graphic designers as a vital element by isolating them in the end of the city branding development process and undervalued their expertise as a Technician/Facilitator only.

This research explains that it is necessary to engage graphic designers from the very beginning of city branding process. This dissertation also suggests that graphic designers should actively participate during the process by conducting required research to articulate project’s outcome that will allow them to gather information for ideas development. The ideal modes for graphic designers are Artist/Experts s whereas graphic designers have an excessive access to take a part in problem space formulation and solution space formulation.

The graphic design graduates should master a research skill and knowledge in branding;

however, their nature to create a visually pleasing outcome should not be disgraced. Therefore, it is important to enhance a creative process in city logo and brand identity development as graphic designers’ essentials. It could be interesting to discuss further the actual practice of city branding development by the professional graphic designers.

(21)

REFERENCES

Ashworth, Gregory, & Kavaratzis, Mihalis. 2009. “Beyond the logo: Brand management for cities.” Brand Management, 16(8), 520-531. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550133

Ashworth, Gregory, & Kavaratzis, Mihalis. 2010. “Conclusions: In search of effective place brand management.” Gregory Ashworth & Mihalis Kavaratzis (Eds.), Towards effective place brand management: Branding European Cities and Regions (pp. 234-239).

Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Baker, Bill. 2007. Destination branding for Small Cities: The Essentials for successful place branding: Creative Leaps Book.

Dorst, Kees. 2011. “The core of 'design thinking' and its application.” Design studies, 32(6), 521- 532. doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.006

Hospers, Gert-Jan. 2010. “City branding and the tourist gaze.” In Dr Keith Dinnie (Ed.), City Branding: Theory and cases (pp. 27): Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

Insch, Andrea. 2010. “Branding the city as an attractive place to live.” In Dr Keith Dinnie (Ed.), City Branding: Theory and cases (pp. 8): Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

Kakaiya, Daphné. 2011. “Paris ranks highest in 2011 Anholt-GfL Roper City Brands Index.”

National Identity, Place Branding Retrieved August, 20, 2011, from http://brandingplaces.com/national-identity/paris-ranks-highest-in-2011-anholt-gfk- roper-city-brands-index/

Lakoro, Rahmatsyam, Wahyurini, Octaviyanti, & al, et. 2010. Visual Communication Design 4 Studio Project: City Branding of Ponorogo. Department of Industrial Product Design Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya. Surabaya, Indonesia.

Lau, Freeman, & Leung, Angelica. 2010. “Chongqing's City Branding: The Role of Graphic Design.” In Dr Keith Dinnie (Ed.), City Branding: Theory and cases (pp. 131-137):

Palgrave Macmillan, Ltd.

Lupton, Ellen. 2011. Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstroming (1st ed.). New York:

Princeton Architectural Press.

Meggs, Philip B. 2006. Megg's history of graphic design (4th Edition ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Melbourne: Designing a flexible and future-focused image. 2010. Retrieved from http://landor.com/pdfs/cases/Case6493-A4.pdf

Morioka, Adams. 2004. Logo Design Workbook: A hands-on guide to creating logos.

Massachusetts: Rockport.

Noble, Ian, & Bestley, Russel. 2011. Visual research: An Introduction to Research Methodologies in Graphic Design (2nd ed.). Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Publishing.

Paton, Bec, & Dorst, Kees. 2011. “Briefing and reframing: A situated practice.” Design studies.

32(6), 573-587. doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.001

Resnick, Elizabeth. 2003. Design for Communication: Conceptual Graphic Design Basics.

Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Tan, Stella, & Melles, Gavin. 2010. “An activity theory focused case study of graphic designers' tool-mediated activities during the conceptual design phase.” Design studies. 31, 461- 478. doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2010.05.002

Tonkinwise, Cameron. 2011. “A taste for practices: Unpressing style in design thinking.” Design studies. 32(6), 533-545. doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.001

Wahyurini, Octaviyanti. 2012. The Significance of City Logo in City Branding Strategy. Paper presented at the the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Cultural

Heritage and Tourism (CUHT'12), University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Wahyurini, Octaviyanti, & al, et. 2009. Visual Communication Design 4 Project: City Branding of Ngawi. Industrial Product Design Department. Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology Surabaya Indonesia. Surabaya.

(22)

Wheeler, Alina. 2009. Designing Brand Identity: an essential guide for the whole branding team.

New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Octaviyanti Dwi Wahyurini: Octaviyanti Wahyurini is a full-time lecturer at Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) Surabaya and has been teaching graphic design since 2005. She is interested in design basics, design expertise, design methods, branding, and typography. She is now writing a text book for graphic design students in Indonesia—a guideline to develop cities’

visual identity to support city branding strategy.

Kartika Kusuma Wardani: Kartika Wardani is a full-time lecturer at Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology and has been teaching graphic design since 2008. She holds a master’s degree in communication science. She is interested in branding, packaging, photography, and visual culture. Her latest project is designing packaging that based on Indonesian local wisdom.

(23)

focused journals in the collection of journals that support the Design Principles and Practices knowledge community—its journals, book series, conference and online community.

The journal explores the organization of design, design work and design as a professional practice.

As well as papers of a traditional scholarly type, this journal invites presentations of practice—including case studies documenting professional practice, accompanied by exegeses analyzing organizational purposes, processes and effects.

The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

ISSN 2325-162X

View publication stats