GAZİANTEP City Case Study

City Branding for GAZİANTEP City

I Mean It was hired to pronounce, protect, and promote the culture of the city of Gaziantep.

Gaziantep, the sixth largest Turkish City, situated at the Turkish-Syrian border, had been dealing with a refugee crisis of epic proportions. The City, which has a population of 1.5 million, was pressured to absorb 300 thousand refugees. Such a rapid population boom threatened the survival of the millennia-old Gaziantep cultural heritage.

We deployed a thorough and highly-engaging strategic process to discover the fuel that was powering the city’s engine. Key policy makers and opinion leaders were interviewed by using the Appreciative Inquiry methodology.

CASE STUDY

ÖRNEK İNCELEMESİ

We discovered that throughout history Gaziantep’s people always stood out with their mastery. Therefore, our big idea was that Gaziantep was not a city. It was a masterly state of mind! The tagline of “Turkey’s masterly people” intentionally put forward Gaziantep’s Genius Loci, the city’s presiding spirit.

ICON

The ever expanding and connecting geometric pattern was a metaphor, representing the industriousness and unity of the people of Gaziantep.

We designed the letter “G” to work as a container. The center of the letter served as a placeholder for icons, also allowing for co-branding. The elaborate color system was created by drawing inspiration from uniquely authentic local goods such as Antep pistachio, pearl, copper, and limestone.

ICON DESIGN

İKON TASARIMI

FONT

The proprietary font, which we named, “Gaziantep,” was based on a particular grid system. To ease the adoption, we made the typeface available to the public free of charge.

Download the font here.

TV COMMERCIAL

We shot a 60-second video to capture the essence of the brand. This heartfelt short video delved into the city’s genius loci, explaining the roots of the concept of mastery, upon which the entire strategy was built on.

IN ENGLISH

TÜRKÇE

WEB INFOMERCIALS

To advertise Gaziantep’s most important tourist attractions, we wrote, produced, and filmed a five-episode mini-documentary series. Our host Jeffrey Young introduced five tangible as well as intangible values of Gaziantep, ranging from gastronomy to architecture, in a series of 2-minute web infomercials.

TEXTILE

PISTACHIO

HOUSES

COPPERSMITH

CUISINE

SOUND LOGO

We created a catchy and emotion-triggering sound logo, inspired by the folkloric tradition of Gaziantep. The audio identity’s variations were used in various places such as the airport terminal, public transport buses, municipal call centers, and local chambers’ dial lines.

ORCHESTRAL

GENERIC

KIDS

RINGTONE

FOLKLORIC

PRINT & OUTDOOR CAMPAIGN

Design phase also included print and outdoor campaign. As a part of the mandate, first, we commissioned top photographers to capture the city’s breathtaking vistas and most friendly faces.

Then, we amalgamated those images with the insightful quotes we obtained from key stakeholders. The result was a highly authentic print and outdoor campaign, which helped raise awareness of the city’s unique values.