CBR, Canberra’s city brand unveiled

Ben_Dover said :

Hey, looks like the same people got the contract for Santa!!

http://www.quietroom.co.uk/santa_brandbook/one

That is awesome! Love the venn diagrams, but most of it had me LOL! 🙂
Classic!

Ben_Dover said :

Hey, looks like the same people got the contract for Santa!!

http://www.quietroom.co.uk/santa_brandbook/one

Wow, that reads like a packet of cheap Chinese stationery!

Hey, looks like the same people got the contract for Santa!!

http://www.quietroom.co.uk/santa_brandbook/one

johnboy said :

Another take on it from Drum Media:

http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2013/12/03/nice-one-canberra

Gods! That moronic “advertising speak” makes my brain bleed.

Another take on it from Drum Media:

http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2013/12/03/nice-one-canberra

Looks a bit too much like the initial logo for Canberra Sand and Gravel ( CSG,, done funky style ). Might be copyrighted. !

ChrisinTurner said :

Why is it an “Art Deco” logo? Are we still back in the 1930’s? 3 months of consultation is supposed to have started but I couldn’t find it online anywhere. Should we use a quill pen and ink and write a letter to the Chief?

I’ve been to Napier in New Zealand, and let me tell you, calling this logo “Art Deco” is an insult to the style.

Interesting take on Drum Media:

http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2013/12/02/cbr-brand-managers-view-canberras-city-branding

dannybear said :

As a young whippersnapper I know lots of people who travel from all over Australia to skate at Canberras skate parks, perhaps the goverment could print some of these logos onto skateboards and organize some sort of giveaway or skate competition? And water bottles to hand out during the summer could be good too.
Maybe even some bottles of wine so the wrinklies don’t feel left out 😀

There is already the Centenary Shiraz, Riesling and Sparkling, which all have pretty good labels… I’m glad they didn’t bugger them up with this logo.

As a young whippersnapper I know lots of people who travel from all over Australia to skate at Canberras skate parks, perhaps the goverment could print some of these logos onto skateboards and organize some sort of giveaway or skate competition? And water bottles to hand out during the summer could be good too.
Maybe even some bottles of wine so the wrinklies don’t feel left out 😀

Holden Caulfield said :

So you use the cultural connection (ie. flag colours) to support Ikea’s colour scheme, but change your position by 180° to trash similar reasoning for colour use in the Canberra Brand.

You’re on fire. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

Are you saying the Swedish flag is anachronistic?

Anyway moot point, while they’ve put the awful yellow version up front, it looks like there’s a dozen different versions of the CBR logo already including a couple where the ‘CBR’ are filled with patterns. Overall the result is very messy. Brands should be stable and consistent across different mediums and uses. A couple of colour versions and a couple of monochromatic versions tops. Having so many versions just waters it down.

The day people realise that a brand is not a logo, the better.

What is a brand? Put simply, it’s the personal relationship or feeling about a product, service (or city) that someone has with that entity.

It’s certainly not a logo.

So to my colleagues out there in Adland, please don’t forget that, a brand is not what YOU say it is, it’s what THEY say it is.

Understand that and we might get somewhere.

miz said :

It all seems a bit tragic, embarrassing and ‘please like me’ for Canberra to have a ‘brand’. If Sydney launched a brand…

If?

It’s not tragic and it’s not embarrassing. It is very much “please like me” and is an effective method for cities to adopt when competing for tourist and business sector dollars.

c_c™ said :

You mean the anachronistic flag that features the out of date coat of arms. Gosh, forward thinking aren’t we.

Canberra’s floral emblem is the blue bell.
Canberra is the bush capital, surrounded by the place green tones of native bush.
Canberra is built on limestone plains and the dark soils in parts of the capital were once used by native peoples for artworks.

Plenty of inspiration around. About the only thing Canberra about this branding is the allusion to Griffin’s axis idea in the logo. Branding doesn’t even use the rather nice winning font and runner up in the official Centenary font competition.

So you use the cultural connection (ie. flag colours) to support Ikea’s colour scheme, but change your position by 180° to trash similar reasoning for colour use in the Canberra Brand.

You’re on fire. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

all seems a bit tragic, embarrassing and ‘please like me’ for Canberra to have a ‘brand’. If Sydney launched a brand, we Canberrans would scoff – and I would expect no less from others about this one. The govt has been scammed once again. They’re a bit thick, methinks.

If you go here:

http://en.parisinfo.com/ you can see the logo/brand for Paris
http://www.nycgo.com/ you can see the logo/brand for New York
http://www.visitlondon.com/ you can see the logo/brand for London

All seems a bit tragic, embarrassing and ‘please like me’

At least it will make for a nice short hashtag in winter: #CBRrrr

I like the idea of canberra having a brand identity & think its a great idea. Whether or not you like the logo, colours, amount of money committed to the initiative or whatever the great cities of the world have them either by design or accident.

What I like
– The video shows of some great images of Canberra

What I don’t like
– The people: monotonous tones, straight from an uninspired script. Reference to ‘future policy makers’ was a big turn off.
– The music: it’s great they’re using a local Canberra band, but it doesn’t really work. Nick Cave’s Red right hand makes a huge difference to the ‘Be Consumed’ Barossa campaign.
– The brand: well…having it shoved down my throat anyway. Flashing the logo a thousand times is not going to make me like it more (if I’m still watching).
– The length: Not sure how many will sit through 2:28 a second time. I imagine this will be trimmed for tv.
– Originality: Too many agencies trying to please too many people. It’s not exactly going to go viral…

c_c™ said :

dtc said :

DHL, Shell, Kodak, yellow pages, McDonalds, Ikea….all yellow

Ikea is Yellow on Blue for cultural reasons.

Shell and McDonalds both chose red and yellow because it’s recognisable on highways at speed from a distance.

DHL’s colour scheme is probably a mix of those two reasons.

Im pretty sure that you’ll find that Mcdonalds is yellow and red because those colours are known to enhance appetite, but also be irritating to sit around for too long..

miz said :

It all seems a bit tragic, embarrassing and ‘please like me’ for Canberra to have a ‘brand’. If Sydney launched a brand, we Canberrans would scoff – and I would expect no less from others about this one. The govt has been scammed once again. They’re a bit thick, methinks.

Personally I relish the fact that Australians have a love-hate relationship with Canberra!

I agree with the ‘try hard’ assessment. I think that Canberrans in the main would agree that Canberra is already ‘grown up’ if you want to term it that way. I don’t see why we have to try and continue to justify ourselves to others out of our perceived embarrassment. And yes, most of us like the fact that not everyone wants to live here.