Is crowd-sourced branding the way of the future?

Coming up with a brand to represent a whole city is no easy task. Not only is city branding a complex and involved process, it is a PR minefield - just look at the controversy that surrounded the recent launch of the City of Melbourne's new visual identity. Critics lambasted the logo as not being representative or reflective of the city.

When London invited pitches for the development of a city brand, to be used globally in the lead up to the Olympics, one agency sought to side step this possible resistance. In developing their pitch, Moving Brands took the unlikely step of inviting the public into the creative process.

The agency established a blog and a Twitter account and called not only for submissions from the public, but for comment as they progressed through the design process.

This type of two-way engagement is common in the social media world and is reflective of an overall shift in public expectations.

While Moving Brands did not ultimately win the tender (that honour went to Saffron Brand Consultants) they did attract quite a lot of attention and support for their approach. This is a trend we're likely to see more of, and one we can all learn something from.

Read the Moving Brands presentation here.

Below: Submissions from the ‘Submit your design‘ section of the "A brand for London" blog.

Concept above by Stephen Walker

Concept above by Paul

Concept above by Mark Allardice.

Below: Moving Brands shared their conceptual exploration real time on the blog & invited feedback from Londoners.