Concept: logo for Yekaterinburg from "Log machines"

Introduction

Log machine volunteered to make a logo to one of the Russian cities from a random list.



To determine which city will get the logo, we conducted a popular vote. Ekaterinburg and Kaliningrad reached the finals from 18 cities, where the capital of the Urals won with a minimum margin.





Survey in the Logos group

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How in Yekaterinburg with design

Emblem

The history of the ECB logo resembles a dramatic detective story. Until 2015, the city was content with a coat of arms that combined as many as 10 (!) Images. Try to find them all:





Beautiful and self-sufficient coat of arms of Ekaterinburg

Competition

However, in May 2015, a “competition for the development of the logo and identity of Yekaterinburg” began, where as many as 330 works of different levels of elaboration were received.

In the summer of the same year, the winner was chosen by vote - EKAT YERIN BURG:



Voting results from the official site



The winning concept is based on the font style, inscribed in a square shape. The authors of the concept associate the style with "strength, power, stability and confidence":





Concept - competition winner





Logo in life



It will be fair to note that not all citizens accepted the new logo: the people managed to christen it “Yekaterinburg” either because of the form visually similar to the burger (two buns and cutlet in the middle), or because of the association with the font version of the logo Burger King, or because of the hanging part of the word "BURG", after which it suggests "-ER". Surveys on the city portal and in the official group of the competition did not give the best results:





Voting on the city portal and in the official group of the contest in VKontakte



Of course, any concept has strengths and weaknesses. This option is good because it is easy to use, thanks to the square shape - the authors solved the problem of placing the long name of the city in the logo. However, this gives rise to a problem: the logo is hard to read because of the unnatural transfer of the name not by syllables - EKAT YERIN BURG.

Lebedev logo

Oh, and at the end of 2014, Lebedev’s studio proposed its own version of the Ekaterinburg logo, basing the concept on the initials of Catherine I, but the administration rejected this option :





Style Ekaterinburg from studio Lebedev

Concept search

We have carefully studied the history of Yekaterinburg and what it is famous for. It is the capital of the Urals, founded by the Iset River and named after Catherine I. The city is famous for its developed industry, wealth of minerals and precious metals, as well as Bazhov's fairy tales and constructivism:





Approximate mindboard for first sketches



Based on these associations, we began to make the first sketches:





First logo sketches using simple images



It was clear that you need to think more. At this stage, we have come to the shortened writing of Ekaterinburg - EKAT, because we have learned that many local people are already using this abbreviation. In addition, we liked that the name is read in Russian and English in the same writing (and we could not help but beat the recent situation with the demolition of the tallest tower in the city):





We can in humor





T-shirt with a malachite pattern we like



After going through the options, we realized that to reflect the traditions of the city in the logo is not the method that we want to use in the new concept.



In the following sketches, we tried a trend, youth, modern trend in design, played with gradients and perspective:





Trendy Sketches



Something interesting and stylish could have turned out, but these options did not have enough soul, and we wanted the people of Yekaterinburg to be proud and to use the new concept.

We have set aside time to search for a concept that will be relevant for many years.



Residents of Yekaterinburg will not lie - the trend towards modernization is visible : a huge glass Yeltsin center has been built, a modern tram R1 has been developed (which, although it will not see the light, is still steep), the Iset tall tower has been built.



We began to be inspired by the present - with what is currently happening in the city and with the city, and tried to look into its future:





Mudboard for the concept of the future



Having made the first sketches, we realized that we are moving in the right direction:





The first sketches of the final version

The final concept of the brand of Yekaterinburg

Based on the work done, we came to the concept with a simple slogan "The city where there is a place for the new":





It sounds!



We took the adaptive form with right angles, which has a missing element, as the basis of the sign.



In our opinion, the logo of the future is a form that adapts to the environment. Such a sign can stretch, leaving the recognizable element unchanged, so it is very easy to use it:





Logo with corporate style



Without a firm mark, using a mark is even easier:





Square version of the mark



So flexible corporate identity opens up many opportunities for branding carriers:





Style in action





An example of registration plates on buildings





City Navigation Example





An example of a bus





Photo decoration

Conclusion

In our opinion, we managed to solve the current problems of Yekaterinburg branding, we hope that you also liked our concept. Share your opinion in the comments, we will be happy to get feedback!