Ruhr meets heart. Schwerte and Florida design the new city marketing.

Branding, Claim Development, Corporate Design, Design Manual, Development, Event Design, Logo Design, Strategy, Webdesign

The city marketing in Schwerte, which has been in place since April 2019, is working on five major fields of action: In addition to business space management, strengthening the retail sector, and event support and planning, communication is also a central and important field of action.



Strategy.

In a project with a direct connection to the city and in contact with the citizens, the survey of the current cityscape is enormously important in order to assess the character of the new visual brand image. The corporate design had to be innovative, exciting & accessible, but not lose the character of the city or look top-down developed.

The strategic basis for the project was developed with representatives of the city, a specially formed design commission and the citizens themselves.

1. citizens’ survey

At the World Theater of the Street and the Pannekaukenfest, promotion teams paraded through the city, drawing attention to the “Schwerte is…” campaign with question cards and question sheets and motivating people to participate. At the same time, all other interested parties were able to participate in the survey online at schwerte-ist.de.

After completion of the survey, the participations were evaluated and flowed into the communication and brand development of the Schwerter city marketing.

2. expert workshop

Accompanying the citizens’ survey, “experts” from various prominent Schwerte institutions (city administration, public utilities, savings bank, advertising association, etc.) worked out the current and future desired image of the city of Schwerte.

Based on interviews and questionnaires, the first step was to compare and evaluate the parameters of the citizen and expert surveys. In a second step, the results of the different perspectives were used to jointly develop thematic fields for the perception and positioning of the city.

3. thematic fields

From the diverse values and attributes on the character of the city of Schwerte, four major themes could be summarized: Family, Home, Culture, Progress.

These thematic fields should describe the personality comprehensively and optimally and define the future external and internal perception of the city for citizens, offices, visitors, etc.

4. brand positioning

The four themes not only encompass the internal understanding of how the city is perceived, but also set the holistic tone of any form of communication in the steps that follow.

Basic visual elements (logo, corporate design), extended communicative result fields (website, campaigns, events) and also social communication were built on the elaborated positioning statements and brand core.


Our brand focus:

“Schwerte is the family-friendly and culture-loving Hanseatic city on the Ruhr. Thanks to its optimal location, Schwerte always has one leg in the center of the Ruhr metropolis and a view of the neighboring Sauerland region. Schwerte is not only familiar home, but likewise offers a future that is boldly shaped by the citizens and the city together.”



The new logo.

The combination of old & new elements were also the foundation and strategic basis for our development in the logo design. The new logo rearranges the elements of the old city logo and links the city’s distinctive architecture, such as the well-known leaning church tower, with the historic city coat of arms.


Design system & colors.

A strong brand color with reference to the city’s coat of arms, the Ruhr & nature as inspiration for the secondary colors and a modular design system result in an independent and easy-to-use design system.


“When I started in mid-April, I was aware that neither a corporate design nor different communication channels existed. However, city marketing without communication is unthinkable and therefore an urgent and professional issue to address. And that’s what we’re doing now.”

Michael Kersting / Manager Schwerte City Marketing



Digital

Large & authentic images combined with a simple usability & information structure. The city marketing website invites citizens to interact. A fillable event calendar, current offers and interviews or the business directory, the website serves as the first point of contact for information about current events and cultural programs in the city.

Implement in the cityscape and expand to other areas.

Through our long-standing cooperation with the city marketing, we continuously create event designs, merchandise & designs in the space.

All rights reserved by the individual photographers

Read more:
Homepage of the city marketing:

Story about the project:
Working with a design commission

Images Forum Innenstadt:
© Schwerte Stadtmarketing / Sebastian Becker


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