One of the big projects for this semester at OCAD for my main course Graphic Design 2 was to Brand a City of our choice, I chose Basel, Switzerland. Basel is a place I've been interested in recently after I took a History of typography class and my professor would talk about this place over and over and the relation with the International typographic style.
Basel is definitely a place in my - must visit - list.
Along with the branding I created a process book where I featured initial sketches, adjustments, form and colour studies, final logo and logo application.
About the City of Basel
The City of Basel lies in the northwestern corner of Switzerland and its ranked as the third most populous Swiss City. Basel is a tri-national city, it shares borders with Germany and France, making over 50 000 people cross the border daily to work in Basel and leading to create diversity in language: German, French and English. The Rhine River divides the city of Basel in two; Great Basel with the medieval old town centre and Little Basel featuring the night-life. The city is rich in Medieval, Romanesque and Contemporary Architecture.
Basel counts with over 25 museums that range from fine and contemporary arts, cartoon museums, architecture and doll houses. Some museums include original paintings from Picasso and Rothko to name a few. The area is one of the most successful economic regions in the world, it includes a wide range of economic activity such as: chemical industry, engineering, arts, logistics, commerce and financial services.
Brand Positioning
Target: Individuals who are looking for adventures, students, families, travellers, get the target audience excited about living, visiting and creating business in the city's geography.
Travellers, who are seeking to increase personal growth, enjoyment and tourism.
Leisure activities in the city of Basel are infinite, they range from culture, sports,
countryside to urban life.
Businesses and even planners who are looking for economical growth.
Citizens who are seeking for local support and emotional engagement with their
city to increase civic spirit.
Basel is a multicultural metropolis fulfilled with rich antique and contemporary architecture and world-class museums that organizes renowned art shows. The city offers a high quality of life, first class education and very good connection between business and sciences, the tri-national location has made Basel the center of commerce for over hundreds of years and has increased its culture diversity.
Strategic Recommendation
Travel and tourism is one of the world's largest industry, in this global era cities compete by attempting to reach awareness and be promoted as the best places to visit, invest and live in.
Basel is one of the most successful economic regions in the world where the chemical industry, nanotechnology, watchmaking, engineering and creative industries prospers around one of the world's largest assets managers and leading companies in bioinformatics.
In order to increase the ability to attract it is necessary to develop a brand that features a long term solution and a cohesive strategy based on research, experimentation and analysis to capture the essence and value of the city that reflects the past an directs us to the future to turn a location into a destination where people want to come.
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