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From a coal city to a cool city: visual identity of the city of Konin.

The City of Konin—A New Beginning

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Our team of experts at PG Brand Reform has the expertise to transform brands, drive growth and make businesses more sustainable. We use our creativity and passion for design to rethink everything from print collateral to websites, from trade show banners to holiday graphics. The more challenging a project is, the more creative and fun it is for us. Such has been our journey from designing an emotionally creative logo for a café to a corporate identity concept for an entire metropolis. The task included the distribution of design elements to all possible media, which is a subsequently large number for a city. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the PG Brand Reforming team magnificently pulled this project, giving a new life to his beautiful city.

Konin—Past and Present

Konin is one of the most significant cities in Poland regarding electricity contribution. The city is rich in culture and history since its establishment in the thirteenth century. It is a comparatively small city compared to modern metropolis standards. However, being the hub of industries elevates the city’s significance by manifolds. The large coal basin near the city contributes to the network of power plants that account for a whopping 10% of all electricity produced in Poland. Somehow, this wasn’t enough for the residents of Konin. The population curve displayed a gradual fall since its first rise from industrial growth. Millennials were more attracted to mainstream cities for a better living, making it inevitable for sudden measures to be taken to avoid this degradation and create the city’s image in a fashion that attracts everyone. It needed a 180-degree paradigm shift as they decided to replace the concept of coal energy with a better, lively-looking ‘green energy.

The new city of Konin logo hovers over City Hall

The New Surge

Since then, the administration of the city of Konin has developed a new strategy destined to shape the future of its citizens. Green Energy is the new Konin! A city that reflects the positive energy of its people, place, and socio-economic entities. Thus, began the era of “The City of Green Energy,” and Konin emerged with a novel identity under this idea. Needless to say, it was massive, and a campaign of this magnitude called for the creation of a new brand.

The concept of reinventing a former mining hub as a city gives rise to the idea of green energy. One such example out of the many is the hydrogen plant that has recently been constructed. This plant stands as a symbol of environmental efforts and solutions that the city now serves.

City sign with various directions in a new design with green waves

Our Challenges

The agency aimed to create a brand that would accurately reflect the city’s new positioning, appeal to the demand for better environmental friendliness, and demonstrate dynamism in the growth of all facets of society and infrastructure. Energy was the ruling factor here as it covered all aspects of green growth.

Energy is the driving factor because it manifests as light, heat, and vibrations that become sound. Energy has many diverse forms and effects and can influence all of our major senses. However, energy is a wave by definition. We frequently imagine energy as waves-live, similar to sound, light, or heat waves.

The design team at PG was inspired by the flexible ways energy flows between many associates. The kindred relationship between the residents and the urban structure, administration, and public buildings, sustainability and innovation, and business and creativity help formulate its brand. This newfound surge of green energy contributes to new initiatives. For instance, our icon structure relates to services like tourism, healthcare, logistics, and more. Every icon has a beginning and an end that advance quickly and attempt to link with other parts. As a result, we demonstrate how every building in a smart city interacts with every other structure because there can be no tourism or healthcare without education and vice versa.

We have broken it down to get a clearer awareness.

Girl is standing near the wall, looking at part of Konin new logo with traditional horse image, important for this city

The Logo

The logo showcases a play button in the center, indicating new beginnings. It has become the symbol of Konin’s ideology that the city recognizes its citizens’ ambitions and ideas. All it takes is the initiative to start! Click on the play and be drenched in the flow of energy.

New Konin logo and example of how connections are working in this city visual identity

The Font

The font is another significant feature of a brand. It not only conveys the color palette of a brand but allows you to set the tone and flow of mood. Keeping the city’s new surge and the associated aesthetics, our design team has developed a unique font along with a comprehensive brand guide. This brand guide is the trendsetter as it discusses almost all aspects of the interaction between an individual and the city, progressing towards green energy penetration into every cell of the city.

Custom typefont for Konin with unique letters and wave elements to create ligatures

The Color Palette

As Wassily Kandinsky defined colors as the power that directly influences the soul, it became our strategy to develop a color palette that would define the font and set the entire brand’s mood. Our design team used creativity to inculcate pastels and bright colors that truly represent the soul of green energy pervading Konin. In conventional architecture, ancient structures and significant historical buildings are a proud preservation in Konin.

We took our inspiration directly from the rich history and created a contrasting palette since we knew how contrast impacts attention. We inculcated bright colors keeping the proven psychological aspect in mind that bright structures that speak of the hometown, development plans, and a reflection of the future entice. So, we reinvigorated, replacing shabby posters that didn’t bear much impact with vivid designs to bedazzle the city. This promises a new breath. Something that the city’s administration yearned for.

Color scheme with dark blue, green, blue and yellow Konin colours

Our Client Rave About Us

Konin’s officials were elated at the way we reinvented everything. Here’s what they have to say to our outclass contributions towards pulling this project as a new Konin:

“I cooperated with PG Brand Reforming Company in developing the Visual Identification System for the City of Konin, including its logotype. The task also included the development of an image campaign, a marketing mix implementing the assumptions of the communication strategy, and the framework of the online communication system. Together with the team of the City Strategy and Marketing Department of the Municipal Office in Konin, we set a very ambitious task for the agency to achieve full compliance of the concept with the communication strategy, compliance with the strategy and values of the Green City of Energy, uniqueness of the concept of distinguishing the Konin brand from other cities.

We assessed the clarity of the message and the reference in a new form to the existing identity of the city while achieving modernity in the visual execution. The PG Branding agency fully met this task. Moreover, the developed visual identification system has been successfully implemented in our city. It met with a positive assessment from most residents, and the slogan “Konin – energy flows here” has become a permanent fixture in conversations about the city, in the media jargon, and the concepts of community activities of Konin schools and institutions.

It has become the new identity of the city. I appreciate the agency’s approach to cooperation with the client, flexibility, speed, commitment of the entire team, partnership way of working, willingness to understand the client’s intentions and goals fully, and the team members’ high professionalism and creativity. I wholeheartedly recommend it. ”

Agnieszka Golebiowska
Youth and creative projects coordinator
Different media with corporate identity application: news stand, hoodie, mask, bus stop
PG & Konin—A Fresh Start to a Greener Tomorrow

Our efforts have produced a vibrant and animated corporate brand that energizes the city’s strategic orientation and gives it life.

Greetings from Konin! Thanks for visiting the metropolis of green energy.

Another media with visuals application: mugs, screensavers, ID-cards, pens, organiser

If you’re interested in working with us, feel free to contact our client services team. We look at each brief individually and always try to answer every question as soon as possible.

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