This project is a case study of creating the identity of Meknes city.
Historic City of Meknes:
Founded in the 11th century by the Almoravids as a military settlement, Meknes became a capital under Sultan Moulay Ismaïl (1672–1727), the founder of the Alawite dynasty. The sultan turned it into a impressive city in Spanish-Moorish style, surrounded by high walls with great doors, where the harmonious blending of the Islamic and European styles of the 17th century Maghreb are still evident today.
As a designer, working on my city branding is a challenge that I want to take especially when I see Meknes city suffering and losing its identity those previous years, so this was my goal through this project by helping my city on my way, trying to create a visual identity for it and promote the city as a global brand that welcomes different cultures from all the world, by highlighting its beauty that show up in its different historical sites.
To begin the identity,I started by thinking about the logo design;
Well The challenge in the logo design was how to create a logo that gives the audience the same feeling that they have for the city, and represents the city with its monuments, culture, and history.
The trick was to mix the word and the image, the silhouette of Bab Mansour Al-alj (most famous historical site in the city) being close to the shape of the M, and adding a geometric shape that reflects Meknes historic side.
As you can see the main logo element that I come up with is the one over.
The idea of the logo was to create a minimalist shape of Bab Mansour Al-alj, and in the middle of it an Islamique geometric shape.
you can see also the letter M of the name Meknes in the lower part of the logo, the letter K (meKnes) on the left side, and the letter N (mekNes) on the right part, which makes this element responsive to the typographic logo of Meknes as it's shown below.
Typography
& colors.
Pattern
system.
The main elements of the pattern were the icons of famous historical sites in Meknes.
And this pattern was the principal element in the graphic universe that accompany the logo and complete together the visual identity of this beautiful city.
The graphic
universe.
