How Do You Brand a City?

Branding a product is fairly straightforward: with a well-defined user demographic, there are a lot of examples and well-known best practice next steps to be able to appeal to that demographic. But how do you brand a city? Think of your own city: you’ve got your favorite neighborhood you love to hang out in, and can’t imagine why other people like other areas. And the people in the other areas think the exact opposite of you, plus add in tourists and business interests, and you’ve got an amorphous and very poorly defined demographic that can make it really hard. This write up from It’s Nice That digs deep into some examples of recent city rebrands, how they hit the mark, and some strategy insights into their design thinking that can give some inspiration to all designers.