City of Melbourne's new corporate identity

[barcbyte]

This was a bargain of a rebranding - amazed we got it so cheap. Well done, council! (I am a Melbournian)

[Melbcity]

The Council needs to get back to reality and stop living in a expecting others to pay for their flights of fancy. Obviously its elected representatives are on permanent holiday. At a reported cost of $240,000 plus additional costs in roll out and replacement I cannot see the justification for this new logo. OK it is an improvement on the logo used for the Australian Open.

[Melbcity]

The City Council needs serious reform and expansion of its external boundaries taking in the four state seats of Albert Park, Melbourne, Prahran and Richmond . Cr Clarke finally woke up to this fact then he resigned having failed to act on it.

[san0w]

people think that it's easy to create a identity for a city like Melbourne and it doesnt take hours of work and study to make a concept for the whole work...

[aldwin1026]

why are there so many haters? it's absolutely amazing.

love the concept, love the logo.

[kerojai]

Graphic designing is a lot harder than just getting a fat letter M and putting a bunch of lines through it.

[Metrelb]

Love it! Love Melbourne!!

[ChrisDillonTv]

GO MELBOURNE!!!

[kanthony10]

Hmmmm...the cost is quite high, but it shows melbourne as the classy and sophisticated city that it is. It is a logo and brand that will last.

[19porridge72]

Forever Melbourne ,a very clean town!

@:-D

[kazaustralian]

I heard that someone from Sydney made the logo. Sydney! *angry face*

[LUIShtRUIZht]

S for superman

B for Batman

X for Xmen

M for MELBOURNE

it doesn't communicate Melbourne, and it's too expensive for something that can't achieve any meaning, maybe Melbourne city of triangles

what it does communicates is what the major wants for us in his government period. I'm so afraid

[mieztier]

I wonder what this video tells me bout Melbourne...errr...lemme guess....nothing!?

And 230.000 $ for a letter...dude...honestly, thats scary.

[CecilyAsia]

MUCH less than most city councils pay for when it comes to logos... which is even scarier!

[snabb]

And my blood pressure skyrockets... All you whiners, shut the fuck up, especially the ones who say they 'can do a better one'. Melbourne got much more than just a logo, and contrary to popular belief, the price the city council paid is not THAT high, compared to what any semi-big company pays for its branding. And finally, when it comes to the results - I love it. Modern, attractive minimalism.

[gogauyo]

i totally agree snabb. Visual identity is not just a symbol.. it's a system, new ways to express and communicate.. This launching video doesn't resume the work needed to developp all the tools that Melbourne need to communicate in his time.

I love design!

[slypsi]

I agree too, but on the other hand it should have been a local job. I suppose it was an excuse for another corporate junket...

[annenkovand]

It looks like sochi 2014 bid logo & identity :)

[kedute]

pointless - it is impossible to get visa to Australia

but I like logo :)

[packa004]

I think they could have done more with the video. They didn't show me an interpretation of the logo other than the sky line pictures. I want more personality. Oh and designer need to make money to! That fee didn't go to just one person, but the agency that worked on it. There were probably many people involved who spent countless hours coming up with the concept. It's not easy to do what designers do people.

[haydenw08]

Tax payers paid for their advertisments about buying Australian and Australian made, and now we're paying again for this silly looking logo that a high school student could make that was created overseas. I would rather the money be spent on helping to homeless people and the pensioners!

[01F3ti5h]

@haydenw08 rebranding cities can actually be an investment... considering the fact that after this rebrand melbourne seems to be more interesting. This can mean: more potential visitors which can help its economy. Businesses alone can also decide they want to be in this seemingly new "hip" city and would want to move there... opening and creating jobs... i'm not a pro at strategic branding or all that jazz... but if you look at it from another angle... it all works out.

[dvi47]

I like the look of the logo. but $147,906 seem to much for a logo.

[itsiphonic]

Great work from the agency on what I suspect would be a tough client to please. As long as there's a decent lifespan in this identity and it's used flexibly, the price seems pretty fair to me.

[mediaoneaustralia]

Itsiphonic ....

Maybe you'd like to sell your house and you could have a logo like this too - with about $10 change. They paid all up almost $230,000. Still sound like great value? Still seem like a fair price? PS There's plenty of lifespan in a house!

Maybe they could have used an Australian Design Agency and saved about $200,000. They got ripped off by an overseas agency. Simple as thay.

[PixlNinja]

Not letting me wow on this motion gfx after seeing a $240,000 price tag.. ! not worth the money... :/

[tycoonassassin]

I hope nobody paid money for this.

[ryanmargheriti]

so obviously the 249k wasnt spent on 'just a logo' it was spend on a whole new brand, this video, and probably more included. do i think its overpriced? perhaps, but you people saying how you could have done better and that it doesnt say 'melbourne' clearly cant see it for what it really is: a good interpretation of what 'melbourne' means. i like it.

[one22andan8th]

SHIT HOUSE

[carservicedotcom]

What is the add telling us??? Is it that Melbourne starts with "M".

[thedozmonzoo]

its a poor design it looks like a revamp of the ABC logo

[Briffa885]

$240,000 that could have easily been used for something that could have benefited the city in many other ways. What a waste! The thing is ugly and it represents shit! Why didn't they turn to local company to design it? For something that someone from RMIT can do within one hour for free is retarded!

[RandomnessIsTheKey]

OMG what a great way to spend $240,000

i can even do better then whatever that was.

what a bloody waste of TAX MONEY!!!

[OnlinEJunkeY]

or.. FUCK OFF WERE FULL

that would be better.

[btbking]

fucking oath, we are.

[Wdvlnm]

Doesn't really say Melbourne to me.

[jasonyean]

lame

[naturefreek1993]

sigh... to be honest this logo doesn't represent the true Melbourne it only represent how Melbourne is able to use so much money on a project that anyone could do for under 100 dollars CMON these guys need to pull their pants up seriously... and to top it all off they used $240,000 and it was designed overseas... what Australian graphics designers not good enough? gosh these guys need to really be off their head to change to this logo... personally i bet any Australian could do a better job!

[auspol04]

sydneys the best

[Reow]

except for your roads

[fantasypills]

looks cool

[jtinaustralia]

I really like it.

[2much2teach]

thank you so much, i feel my tax money is in an even better use

[parkvillepictures]

Don't worry, City of Melbourne! I'll design you a new logo - better, bolder and at 5% of the budget of this one...

[pestlabs]

I'm afraid, that the only good thing about it is... the music.

[blad3runn69]

timeless logos are elegantly simple and concise. not sure this is either

[no1un0]

Every time I see it I'll be reminded of that song "I want my MTV..." I can't really see how this connects to Melbourne. Melbourne has style. This logo is brash, simplistic and shallow. That's not Melbourne at all. Not the Melbourne I know. It reminds me of some MMBW logos from the 1980's. Don't get me started on the cost, but I'm sure there's worse wastage that goes on that we don't hear about. But it's just a logo. What really counts is what the City Council does, with it, or regardless of it.

[sfacets]

Wonderful. Now onto the homeless people, (if you have any money left).

240,000 for this? Are you F*ing serious?

[petexanh]

Why do I get the feeling that this logo was designed to suit the video clip rather than the other way round? Looks more like Federation Square (as elegant and beautiful as a lump of shrapnel can be) meets McDonalds than anything else.

[someguycreative]

Many have been trying to break the cost down into chargeable hours. You can't do that with branding.

Logos, names and straplines can't be simply valued by the hours that they took to create. A well-crafted logo can have a future brand value which is potentially worth so much more than the initial cost to the client.

In essence, the client is paying the designer to relinquish all their rights to a potentially valuable logo.

I like it, and I can't wait to see it as a huge 3D glass sculpture.

[wilkinsfarago]

Is that it? I'm underwhelmed. Design may not be cheap but this has cost a lot more than it should.

[HIVECreative]

We had fun designing and producing this brand animation (this youtube video). We'd like to congratulate the City of Melbourne and the designers of the brand for a job well done! The mark was great to work with - and provides a lot of visual versatility to explore.

[msrhe]

PS. Their NEW website is woeful.

[msrhe]

U don't just create a new logo and slap it on the good ol' website, everything needs to be overhauled, style guide, website, printing collateral, signage, etc. Think about how many items that logo will be use on, well somebody needs to create a guide for that so whoever receives sourced work doesn't fuck it up. It's put in place to stop people like Sharron from downstairs grabbing a JPG of the logo & slapping it into MS Word and printing off dodgy flyers and mass-posting it to everyone in Melb!

[msrhe]

I doubt the cost would be entirely for the logo element itself. Most likely a unified branding package.

[msrhe]

It seems the majority of voters dislikes the logo.

The cost of $240,000 is completely EXCESSIVE. That is a rate of $500 per hour for 3 months (40 hrs a week). I bet the Art Director has a sweet song for words to have persuaded the Melbourne City Council.

[135anderson]

Well done City of Melbourne!! A great new brand for our city.

[toolunit]

looks great! A progressive and funky brand. The money is nothing. Look at London 2012, its still got people talking! A brand, and a good brand is something that gets a reaction. Its certainly got that!

well done Melbourne.

[hyperdesign]

i dont mind it.. have certainly seen worse, what i do find offensive is that it was outsourced to an international design firm when melbourne has a wealth of local designers..

[philipjwalmsley]

This is beautiful work. The colour palettes are stunning! Makes me want to visit Melbourne.

@peterjchisholm: Yes, of course you could have. Bugger off, talentless troll.

I don't quite understand the "Too Expensive!!!" Comments on stuff like this. Design isn't cheap. Good design is even less cheap. A lot of research, time, and effort is spent on these projects. It's not just some guy sitting on his MacBook with a pirated copy of CS4 and a 1 year diploma.

[peterjchisholm]

$240,000 to design that? I could have done it for $50

[kluivertp]

I guess it's more about the concept behind it than the design itself. And of course, now that I've seen this I'm pretty sure I could have done that, but not sure I would have come up with the idea.

[gavinheron]

great work!

[sparsembk]

Great logo. I think this is a true reflection of the Melbourne I know. It gives a good sense of it's creativity and it's use of space.

[Chickenn7]

I love the logo, but dislike the cost.

[jadeek]

nice work! melbourne rocks!

[checkeditout00]

i love it, well done