If you shut your eyes and movie a metropolis, what seemingly involves thoughts first are the enduring landmarks, such because the structure, the bustling streets, and the locations that draw vacationers in. However, in case you linger slightly longer, the picture begins to shift and subtler particulars emerge: the day by day lifetime of its folks, the heat of its group areas, and the nuances that give a metropolis its soul.
It begins to really feel much less like a postcard for strangers and extra like a framed picture resting within the nook of your own home. Every time you stroll by and look at it, you might be reminded of how town formed you, and of its individuals who welcomed you in.
That is the imaginative and prescient that guides designers when taking over the problem of metropolis branding: to create a visible identification that additionally speaks to the individuals who dwell there, not simply to the vacationers. As many advertising specialists agree, when folks really feel seen, they’re extra more likely to interact and contribute to shaping the way forward for their cities.
That deeper sense of place is what Egyptian designer Jannah Abdellatif got down to seize in her branding challenge for Fayoum, a lush, historic oasis tucked away simply exterior Cairo. What began as a college project on place branding shortly grew to become one thing extra private, a imaginative and prescient she now hopes to convey to life in collaboration with native authorities.
“I had simply come again from a go to to Fayoum with my grandmother,” she shares. “We hung out within the Tunis Village, and I simply fell in love with it. It’s a spot that provides the whole lot: nature, tradition, and historical past and appears like a peaceable retreat from the chaos of Cairo.”
It was that specific emotional connection that she wished to translate by way of design. “As somebody not from Fayoum, I felt an enormous sense of accountability. I didn’t need it to really feel like I used to be gentrifying or lowering the place to a pattern. That stress made me strategy the challenge thoughtfully, nearly cautiously at first.”
From the start, her focus was clear: let the prevailing tradition lead the design. That is particularly as a result of Fayoum’s tradition is inseparable from its craftsmanship, significantly its pottery, which has turn out to be a logo of its identification. Within the village of Tunis, native artisans use clay from close by Lake Qarun, shaping and firing it utilizing conventional methods handed down by way of generations.
“I knew the normal patterns and motifs needed to be on the coronary heart of it. They’re not simply ornamental however markers of identification, lived expertise, and craftsmanship handed down by way of generations,” she added.
She designed a customized typeface the place every letter had which means. The “A” takes the type of the Burj Hamam, one of many pigeon towers seen all through the area. The “O” attracts from the pottery wheel, a nod to the ceramics workshops that outline life within the Tunis Village. Even the colours are drawn from nature itself: terracotta from the clay, deep blues from the water, and smooth greens from the farmland.
To make the branding sensible and versatile, Abdellatif additionally created modular design parts from recurring native patterns. “I wished it to be adaptable, one thing that might dwell on a store signal, a coaster, a pageant poster, or a social media put up. However irrespective of the place it appeared, it might nonetheless really feel like Fayoum.”
She additionally thought rigorously about the best way to strike a steadiness between custom and modern design, highlighting Fayoum’s heritage with out overshadowing it or reinventing its unique identification.
“The folks of Fayoum have already achieved the exhausting work of cultivating this lovely aesthetic,” she says. “I simply translated it into a visible language that might work inside the framework of place branding.”
When achieved proper, metropolis branding can construct native delight, herald tourism and funding, and create a way of unity throughout neighborhoods. Probably the most well-known examples is Milton Glaser’s I ❤ NY brand. Designed within the Nineteen Seventies throughout a troublesome time for New York Metropolis, it didn’t simply appeal to vacationers, it additionally sparked a wave of delight amongst locals. Even a long time later, it nonetheless means one thing to the individuals who dwell there.
That type of impression is what Abdellatif hopes for. “This challenge is extremely near my coronary heart,” she says.
“I’d love for it to evolve past a college transient. I hope to sooner or later collaborate with native artisans and communities to convey this branding to life in a means that genuinely displays the folks and spirit of Fayoum.”
