A place brand is far more than a logo. But at the same time, having a clear, consistent visual identity is a key component to unifying the different facets of our place as one voice. However, it’s also very easy to get wrong. After all, how do you capture something as multidimensionally complex as a city or nation on paper without being reductive? And what can you do to avoid your community critiquing the cost of the re-design?

Costa Rica had a particular challenge: to transmit the essence and values of Costa Rica to every corner of the world, through the design of a new biometric passport. Discover how the team brought their nation brand strategy to life in their new passport design.

Over the years, we've been privileged to see some of the best and brightest of place branding and place marketing campaigns from around the world. As we gear up for the 2023 City Nation Place Awards, we wanted to some of our personal favourites from the Awards archive and to update it with the campaigns from last year that we just can’t stop thinking about!

Medway in Kent was one of 25 areas in England awarded a share of £3 million to help them set their own standards for design locally. We asked Virginie Giles, Place Manager & Director for We Are Medway CIC, to explain more about the impact placemaking is having on the area, including the importance of bringing Medway’s diverse communities together to deliver positive change.

Zuidoost is the youngest district of Amsterdam, and residents have roots all over the world. All those cultures together in one neighbourhood ensures Zuidoost has become its own city with its own stories - so any place brand design and strategy needed to be able to embrace the diverse character of the community.

In 2017, Courmayeur launched a new brand design identity to capture the spirit of the town and its history. Discover the process behind the wordmark here.

Discover how the Kansas City Area Development Council embarked on a project to reset the region's image with a new brand - 'KC Heartland' - and how they encouraged their community to embrace the new strategy.

All buildings are part of the physical environment, stirring the city image, living conditions, social wellbeing, and economic profile. So, how does one become an iconic site for locals and tourists? Find out how to amplify the relationship between master plan developments and iconic components within cities and turn an icon into the lynchpin of a destination.

After over 400 interviews, the team at Brand Tasmania distilled the Tasmanian spirit into six words: the quiet pursuit of the extraordinary. But how do you express that identity through design?

As COVID-19 travel restrictions begin to ease in many countries, destination brands are preparing to spearhead the economic recovery, welcoming new guests and finding ways to ensure they visit again. However, it can be difficult to tell a truly engaging story across multiple channels, so how can destination brands get it right?

It's critical that a place brand strategy is representative of your community - and that your community is engaged with your approach. Al Hutchinson, President & CEO at Visit Baltimore, joined us to share the story behind Visit Baltimore's brand re-design, and how they put community voices in the spotlight with their messaging.

Launched amidst the pandemic and the BLM protests, the goal of Baltimore's new brand wasn’t to sugar coat any of Baltimore’s challenges, but to tell a holistic story that differentiates the city, while celebrating the people committed to making a better Baltimore. But how did they achieve this?

As an iconic city and region, Bergen naturally comes with an inheritance of many clichés and tired symbols – and so did the former Visit Bergen profile, created in 2000. The identity wasn’t made for digital surfaces, and the positioning of ‘Gateway to the Fjords’ could communicate that it was only as a stop-over destination on the way to somewhere else.

"The future of the city is the future of us. It’s who we are," says Jonathan Woetzel, McKinsey Global Institute. The question, then, is what changes do we need to make to bring people back to the city? And how do we do this safely, equitably, and in a way that makes us more resilient to future shocks?