Blogo

3/31/2008 - Branding a country - The Island of the Bahamas

Of course country branding - and cities, regions, etc. - is (much) more than just a logo, like Antonio Marazza, Landor General Manager, said in one of his articles. The challenge is that a country logo, and all its identity, has to faithfully represent the feelings and experience of the place. I would love to be contracted to develop a project like that, especially if the client were a paradisiacal country ; )

To illustrate how pleasant and didact would be a country branding project, Blogo brings to you The Island of the Bahamas logo, created by Duffy & Partners, for Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, in 2005.

The new logo and brand identity for the islands of the Bahamas - a clever maplike representation of the arrangement of main destination islands, and a pattern that can be repurposed on everything from T-shirts to websites - is fresh and bright, like the place itself. The mark distinguishes Bahamas as not a single destination but many.

Less than inspiring, the Bahamas' old logo (at right) didn't say 'tropical,' much less 'unique' or even 'fun'.

Building off flower shapes and other organic forms, the Duffy design team - after taken and studied hundreds of pictures of the islands, its nature and shapes - began to experiment with different ways to express that the Bahamas was not one destination, but many.The concept of using geographic as a design element emerged here, through different shapes.

The individual islands can be completely split out when necessary or they can be distinguished from the grouping of other islands solely through the use of color.

The shapes formed by the new logo have been worked into many different patterns and aplications, all of which further the brand identity and effortlessly promote the client.

patterns