Bologna City Branding: How to Create a Generative Logo

City branding: from theory to practice

Case histories of cities succeeding in creating a new logo:

Bologna

Eurocities Working Group on City Branding and Attractiveness

Genova1011 April 2014

Bologna City Branding Roberto Grandi

1A briefing for the city brand

1Identification of the most significant features of the identity of the city of Bologna

2Definition of the repositioning of the city

3Identification of narrative structures to tell the new positioning of the city

A briefing for the city brand

The aims of the project

Bologna City Branding 3/80


The BCBP devoted the first five months to extensive research aimed at analysing perception of the current international (national) brand image of Bologna and at identifying the traits that characterise its desired identity.

The international (national) image of Bologna was analysed by:1Giving a questionnaire to a sample of foreign/italian citizens who have visited and or stayed in Bologna in recent years (questionnaires completed 405, of which 250 in English and 155 in Italian) (October 2012 February 2013)

2Recovering data resulting from research carried out previously on the perception by residents

3Reputational/Sentiment analysis of the presence of Bologna on the net, which examined 20.000 texts (during the period December 2012 February 2013): posts and comments made available on the internet (forums, blogs, social networks, etc.).

The International and National Perception of the Image of the city of Bologna

Bologna City Branding 4/80

The desired identity (Aspirational brand identity) via:

1Seven Focus Groups, which saw the participation of around 90 significant witnesses from the city, representing the economical, cultural, social and institutional world. (January and February 2013)2#Caroamicotiinvito an online contest to gather stories about the city in the words and pictures of its citizens. (March 2013) 3The results of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan.

The desired identity

A briefing for the city brandBologna City Branding 5/80

We want to guide the visitor to discover Bologna in the most natural and instinctive way possible. Regardless of his inclinations and cultural interests, he/she must be given the opportunity to be his/her own guide. We want to suggest random immersion, not a prearranged itinerary, and not even a priority choice. We do not want to be the ones to tell him/her what is important for us; we want him to discover the details that are of interest to him/her. We do not want to tell him/her about Bologna, but rather it must be he who offers us his/her personal story.

We can offer a city with a contemporary, vital, experimental image, not just history and museums.


A briefing for the city brand 6/80Bologna City Branding

The invitation to wander and lose oneself in Bologna, a city where both human and sensorial relationships are inseparable. Walking through Bolognas porticoes is the experiential key that we can offer the visitor: a unique and multifaceted perspective of the past and the present. We want people from all over the world to be tempted to come to Bologna because this is an open city, innovative and welcoming, where you can enjoy authentic experiences and emotions in keeping with your own inspirations.

Bologna as an open code which give to everybody the possibility to write his/her own history.



Among the over 500 proposals received, the jury has selected the winner: the group of authors Matteo Bartoli and Michele Pastore (Trieste)

The project proposes a dynamic and open system of identity able to set going processes with the participation of all the population of Bologna, and visitors and institutions. The system, proposing an open code, places at the center of communication, as the principal player, the citizen, and envisions the city of Bologna not only as architecture and physical space, but as the result of a summation of individuals, businesses, vicissitudes, ideas and visions. The project is not limited to proposing an identity system visible through a single graphic proposal but proposes complete development of all artefacts, online and offline. Despite the complexity of the concept, the project shows easy access, and is usable by anybody, of any age, gender or culture.

International competition to create a logo and a payoff for the city of Bologna (JulyOctober 2013)


The problem to be addressed, in studying a possible visual identity for the city, it was therefore twofold:

first, to live together in a brand the multiple facets and infinite perceptions of the city-that constitute what is Bologna. on the other hand, provide the system of sufficient strength and visual coherence to be perceived as such, and thus be an effective tool of connection and tangible enhancement of all these qualities.

Brand New (on line magazine)


2What is Bologna?

The identity of Bologna

is given by a set of unique

tangible elements

Colli

Torre degli Asinelli

Piazza Maggiore Archiginnasio

Basilica di Santo Stefano San Michele

Montagnola Salaborsa Palazzo Grassi

Palazzo dAccursio Palazzo dei Notai

Basilica di San Petronio Arena del Sole

Palazzo dei Banchi Fiera Mambo Teatro

Santuario della Madonna di San Luca

Fontana di Nettuno Stadio DallAra

Reno Colle di Barbiano

Portici

What is Bologna? 12/80Bologna City Branding

but the identity of the city is characterized

also from a multitude ofintangible and subjective

elements

Passeggiare

Tortellini Tagliatelle Rag

Piazza Maggiore Pupi Avati Arte

Pier Paolo Pasolini Guglielmo Marconi

Cultura Zuppa Inglese Cesare Cremonini

Lucio Dalla Fortitudo Virtus Lasagna

Mozart Pazienza Universit Friggione

Cardinal Mezzofanti Alberto Tomba

Giorgio Morandi Certosino

Panone Crescentine

Festival


The identity of a modern city

is the result of the union

of all these elements

Colli

Torre degli Asinelli

Piazza Maggiore Archiginnasio

Basilica di Santo Stefano San Michele

Montagnola Salaborsa Palazzo Grassi

Palazzo dAccursio Palazzo dei Notai

Basilica di San Petronio Arena del Sole

Palazzo dei Banchi Fiera Mambo Teatro

Santuario della Madonna di San Luca

Fontana di Nettuno Stadio DallAra

Reno Colle di Barbiano

Portici

Passeggiare

Tortellini Tagliatelle Rag

Piazza Maggiore Pupi Avati Arte

Pier Paolo Pasolini Guglielmo Marconi

Cultura Zuppa Inglese Cesare Cremonini

Lucio Dalla Fortitudo Virtus Lasagna

Mozart Pazienza Universit Friggione

Cardinal Mezzofanti Alberto Tomba

Giorgio Morandi Certosino

Panone Crescentine

Festival


the project sought to create a visual translation

for this multiplicity building an open and inclusive

graphic system

The graphic design proposed has sought an appropriate translation of this visual narrative, building a graphics system that would give the widest range of stakeholders the ability to contribute without specific expertise to the construction of the visual identity of the city of Bologna. To tell this plurality of meanings and references has been designed a writing system that replaces the graphemes of the Latin alphabet, the abstract signs characteristic.

It was thus designed an alphabet of geometric signs, due to an imaginary town typically Ita-lian: the forms freely take up again some figurative archetypes of the Italian city of Bologna, and more specifically (such as walls, brick mosaic, the lily and the heraldic banner of the cross citizen, etc.).

What is Bologna? 18/80


Bologna City Branding

3The image of the city

we designed some abstract geometric shapes

that reflect some figurative archetypes of the city of Bologna

For each shape we associate a letter of the alphabet.

For every concept that involves Bologna is corresponding a symbol

generated by the forms

The image of the city 27/80Bologna City Branding

4Writing method

The shapes are positioned concentrically,

overlapping according to fixed proportions,

creating composite figures

Writing method 30/80Bologna City Branding

5The visual identity

The coloring of the logos follows a rule that requires the use of two colors that through the use of a given

transparency blend together

The visual identity 40/80Bologna City Branding

The visual identity 44/80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8i5l86IWw


6Applications

The system thus conceived becomes a coordination tool

for the communication of the institutions and organizations

involved in the project

Applications 47/80Bologna City Branding

StazioneAutostradeTangenzialeAereoporto

Tangenziale

San Lazzaro

Stadio DallAra

Torre degli Asinellipiazza di Porto Ravegnana,40126 Bologna, Italia 051 647 2113 www.bologna.it4.5 37 recensioni

indicazioni cerca nelle vicinanze


To allow the construction of shared identity creating logos is open and available

through the website (beta) ebologna.it

7Reviews

This is a difficult one to judge. There are aspects of it that I like and others that irk me. (Im not even going to go into the merits or demerits of this being the result of a contest the contest happened and this came out, end of story).

The underlying concept is quite solid: a flexible, participatory identity based on geometric shapes you might see around the city of Bologna as stained glass, wall or door decorations, medieval inscriptions or drawings, etc. Even if they are not shapes directly pulled from specific sources, the aesthetics are there. Typing in a word in the microsite for the new identity lets you see the concept in action and yields you your own Bologna logo where your word and the wordmark make a new logo, i.e., Ponies is Bologna

Reviews 71/80



The generated logos are interesting and intriguing as visual doodads but as identifiers of a city, I am not 100% convinced.

The transparency/overlaid effect, to me (and its hard to pinpoint exactly why), is what takes it from a serious proposition of city branding to just a cool graphic exercise.

The applications are attractive, though, and I can see the potential in it it is particularly and surprisingly convincing when used small as shown in the event materials.

Overall, its a curious solution that perhaps could have gone through one more layer of refinement in how the icons are rendered and its still not clear when or how the city of Bologna will use it but as fodder for us, its molto bene.

Reviews 72/80



8City of Food

City Of Food is a project created to coordinate all initiatives on food that take place in the

metropolitan area of Bologna

City of Food 75/80Bologna City Branding

The goal is to promote Bologna as an international city of food.

The visual identity of this project was created thanks to the potential of the generative logo of Bologna.

City of Food 78/80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgVEPXXaQY


Thank you!

Bolognais part of the

Bologna City Branding Project

promoted by

photo credits: Cineteca di Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dellArchiginnasio Bologna2014 Comitato Urban Center

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Bologna City Branding: How to Create a Generative Logo