A sense of place? The new City of Melbourne Identity

THE NEW CoM IDENTITY by LANDOR ASSOCIATES
has aroused torrents of invective, and Melbourne's design fraternity are up in arms. The debate still rages, not least in the comments area on AGDA's open blog, arising from Andrew Ashton and David Pidgeon's 'Open Letter to the Lord Mayor' (see below for text and link to forum).

Nous, les flâneurs, added this statement to the discussion:

There's a saying which goes - If it's Melbourne-based entity the designers have to be from Melbourne... if it's Sydney the designers have to be Australian. But in the really confident design capitals of the world, eg New York, Paris or Tokyo, they don't give a damn, as long as it's visionary. Think of architectural commissions... Pei, Rogers and Piano in Paris, Gehry in Bilbao, Hertzog and De Meuron in China. Sydney dared do it once with a Dane.

The problem really is that this new identity is not visionary, exacerbated by unfortunate mayoral comments, and the fact that Melbourne's internationally renowned studios weren't invited to pitch.

The ' design local' issue arises mainly because the new identity conveys no feel for Melbourne's unique soul and is widely seen as a missed opportunity to do something really good. It's not certain that local designers would have managed this, but surely more likely?

What were they THINKING? We give it a year, max. Maybe MCC could sell it on to a casino?

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An Open Letter to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne
24th July, 2009

The City of Melbourne’s rebranding has attracted a veritable storm of controversy, not least because of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle’s inaccurate and unfortunate comments about Victoria’s design industry. Below is an open letter to Robert Doyle, written by Andrew Ashton and David Pidgeon from AGDA Victoria, asking him to outwardly support and promote Victoria’s design industry. We urge those of you who are interested in supporting the industry to take the time to leave your name, studio name and location in the comments section below. We will then pass on the collated signatures and comments to Robert Doyle, Lynne Kosky and John Brumby.

24 July 2008

Th Right Hon the Lord Mayor of Melbourne,
Councillor Robert Doyle
City of Melbourne PO Box 1603 Melbourne VIC 3001

Dear Lord Mayor,

We are writing to you to express our concern over the recent release of the new brand mark for the City of Melbourne. It is of concern to us that the City of Melbourne seems to have ignored the stated Victorian Government policy of supporting and promoting the State’s design industry.

Mr Doyle, the pool of communication and brand design talent in Melbourne is unrivalled in this country and is arguably the most diverse in South East Asia. It is this fact that leaves us dismayed when trying to understand why you chose to appoint a Sydney based / American owned firm to complete a task that could have been just as successfully completed by any number of Victoria’s internationally acclaimed graphic designers.

As for the issue of the “daggy” incumbent design, we would have rather hoped that your significant experience in politics would have taught you to more deeply consider the implication of any public comment. It was frankly insulting to the original creator of the incumbent City of Melbourne brand Mr Richard Henderson of FHA Image Design. We all acknowledge that time waits for few styles and aesthetics but Mr Henderson’s work served the City very well for twenty years and such a glib, final assessment of this legacy does no marketing or design professionals any favours. It tends only to decrease the sophistication of community discussion around communication and brand design.

We urge you to consider and support fellow Victorian designers as you will find that many of these professional are in their own right symbols to the world of “how cool, intellectual, CREATIVE and urbane” Victorians are.

Yours faithfully,
Andrew Ashton – Studio Pip and Co. Balaclava, Victoria / AGDA and AGI Member AGDA Victoria Treasurer

David Pidgeon – Design by Pidgeon East St KIlda, Victoria / AGDA and AGI Member AGDA Victoria Councillor

LINK TO THE ONGOING DEBATE (AGDA):
http://blogs.agda.com.au/suite7/view/post/an-open-letter-to-the-lord-mayor-of-melbourne