The logo is key

In the process of designing this identity I was looking for a simple strong form that can carry a lot of meaning for the city and for its people. The city analysis and research performed by Michaela Hečková and the genealogy study provided by Stanislav Kasík have given the creative process a solid ground with lots of elements to pickup. In the end the famous glory days of worldwide book printing in the history of Vimperk have become the strongest and proudest story.

Logo variations

In most visual identities the logo exists in one or two versions and it is immediately accompanied by filler effects like patterns. For this system I wanted to let the logo play a much more flexible and prominent role and only use patterns and colors much further away from it. The logo has several versions that allow it to work perfectly in any kind of format and orientation without losing its image. Also there is a special ocassion version that incorporates the centuries old – but carefully revised – coat of arms. Very often you see these old symbols get sidelined by the contemporary redesigns and I don’t really agree with that. What bigger thing is there for a city than its centuries of history that produced it and its people.

Make it wearable

All the applications we produce are first of all utilising the slightly more complex logo system and prove its strengths. The team at Vimperk is so keen at maintaining a high quality of all the products that bear the city’s insignia and I am so very glad about such a sophisticated approach on their side. When compared to the previous years they now produce much less items of representative merch but all is at a seriously higher quality. This involves us carefully selecting materials, sizes, t-shirt cuts for male and female contours and generally making sure these products actually work and people enjoy using them.

Cultured public space

Next to print and merch the city identity extends into public space and physical designs. For me public space is a huge subject as it really is the last layer of influence on people. It is a zone of opportunity to cultivate the general public and create a lot of impact on everyone’s day every day. The navigation/info system is using a combination of hardware by mmcité and a custom infopanel construction designed by me together with the city’s architect René Dlesk. On top there is a tough custom-developed sticker recipe by Signpek. The result is a sleek and almost indestructible set of products that can handle the winters as well as the vandalism. The same materials and surface finishes can also be scaled for future applications. Visually it is an exercise in simplicity combining very considerate typesetting with a minimum of features and variations for a calm and easily integrated look. And as always there is no back side to these designs – perhaps the welcome signs look even better from the back than some other ones look from the front.

Project info