Identity for a city

Getting the opportunity to create an identity and branding system for an entire city must be one of the most exciting and yet daunting task a design team could possibly be a part of, especially if that city happens to be your home city!

Getting the opportunity to create an identity and branding system for an entire city must be one of the most exciting and yet daunting task a design team could possibly be a part of, especially if that city happens to be your home city!

Earlier this year White Studio were asked to design an identity for their own city of Porto, Portugal. The brief was to create an identity system that would simplify communication with the people of Porto, the city for everyone.

Porto represents something different to each one of It's inhabitants, so White studio asked Porto residents, researched It's history and documented the cities behavior. With so much life and energy, no single logo or icon could represent everything that Porto stands for so White studio started to build a complex brand with life and energy that told stories of the cities history and people.

The city is know for a wide range of beautiful and colourful tiles that depict moments, emotions and events which is where White studio took inspiration.

They created a simple logo using the city name, Porto… it was strong and it was enough. Around this they designed geometric icons representing all aspects of life in Porto from transport, gastronomy, landmarks, religion, sports and culture, in all over 70 icons have been designed, with more icons being developed every week to strengthen and expand the identity.

The icons are built up to tell stories and the real clever part of the branding is it’s versatility to expand and adapt to every situation now and in the future.

These images do a great job of showing how the brand is applied to the city but this video really captures what the cities new identity is all about.