Brand Design Bid
European Capital
of Culture
Project Scope:
Art Direction,
Brand Identity Design
Event Design
The final Design
What it looked like in the end?
Here are some impressions of the final design proposal.
How we got there?
Step 1: Research
After researching all the existing information concerning the concept and the evaluation of design elements used in the official bid book, we choose design elements, which represent many of the keywords presented in the official concept: e.g. salt, courage, boldness, tradition, connection, openness, and European.
Step 2:
The Colors
The red-orange hue, very similar to the color which had been used in the bid book, is inspired by the appearance of stone salt. White is traditionally associated with (table) salt and even black salt exists naturally - as a very hard stone salt.
Red/orange is widely associated with the keywords stimulating, vitalizing, and active, but also with courage and resistance. All topics which were discussed in one way or the other in the concept of Skgt24's bid for the European Capital of Culture.
Furthermore red (and white) are the colors of the Austrian flag, and therefore these colors also befit the Branding of the Austrian host of the European Capital of Culture 2024.
Step 3: The fonts
The chosen fonts appear on the one hand contemporary and bold (Cunia Bold), and on the other hand, traditional and elegant (Bluu Next and Jost*) and thereby forge a connection between traditional and conteamporary typography.
The modified font Hamburg Hand (partially cut and finally reduced to dots) suggests furthermore movement, change, and transformation in general, but also in a way more concrete form the transformation from salt to culture: the proclaimed slogan of SKGT24 (culture is the new salt).
Step 4: The imagagery
The black-and-white effect that we applied to the used photographs helps to maintain a consistent general impression. At the same time, it is connoted with times passed and therefore associated with tradition.
Step 5: The symbols
The stroke, especially the dash or hyphen, represents always the connection between two parts. Since the creating of connections is a central goal of Bad Ischl's bid, it seems to be predestined to be used in the Branding.
If the line gets rotated by 90 degrees and superimposed onto the existing one it generates a plus. Added value - that can be interpreted as a gain of cultural projects.
The same lines crossed diagonal remind of the hammer and pick, the symbol of (salt) mines.
If all of those elements are joint together, something new evolves: an asterisk which always signals something exceeding beyond the mentioned. In this project something new can be created as well, something exceeding the cultural limits of the existing status quo.
Step 6: The Logo
The main fonts that represent each part are equally used in the complete as well as in the reduced version of the logo. Based on the preselected elements a well-balanced blend of traditional and contemporary appearing fonts was chosen. The colors of each version can be interchanged, without losing their appeal.
As the main version though the black font on orange-red background shall be used. The idea behind this combination is, that salt is the foundation upon which the European City of Culture is built upon. The line that is used as a design element in the full version of the logo becomes a dash in the shorter version and therefore refers to the Capital City Bad Ischl, which is not mentioned in this variation.
The year can be found below the logo on the right side and thus discreetly refers to the spelling of the chemical elements, and such is salt (and therefore the underlying theme of the Cultural Capital Bad Ischl).
