Stadt Freising

Short facts

Client

City of Freising

The new unified city branding

The tourism brand of the city of Freising is to be dissolved. Instead, the city wants to appear as a uniform sender. For a modern brand appearance on a historical basis, the coat of arms was rethought. The bear’s posture became more self-confident, the colors more radiant and the font friendlier.

Under the motto: The youngest and oldest city on the Isar, the people of Freising should once again be able to identify with their city. The city must appear professional and cosmopolitan in order to attract not only students but also companies.

Currently, not every visualization has been realized yet, some applications are still in progress.

The residents of Freising could never really sympathize with their bear. The bear from the previous logo seemed too sluggish, too sad and absent-minded. A new bear had to be designed, which stands for the values of the city of Freising. Upright, open-minded, moving forward.
A heraldic coat of arms becomes a versatile logo. In the process of redesigning the coat of arms, great care was taken to ensure strict adherence to the principles of heraldry. A comprehensive consultation with a renowned heraldist was conducted to thoroughly review the coat of arms from all heraldic perspectives. This final evaluation confirmed the emblem’s alignment with heraldic standards.
In addition to the heraldically correct implementation, important specifications for the coat of arms were a new effect for the bear of Korbinian: departure, lightness, and success. The feeling of future orientation resembles the blazoning specification striding forward. Translating this effect graphically requires a precise understanding of form. Testing the logo in different sizes and media – analog as well as digital.
In the past, coat of arms typically focused on the use of a shield design alone. However, in today’s context, where the intention is to utilize it as a logo across various media and sizes, a fresh graphic adaptation is necessary. Since a coat of arms inherently represents a symbolic heraldic description, its visual style evolves with the passage of time.
We focused on designing a coat of arms that functions effectively as a logo across various sizes and media. We utilized clear forms with appropriate thickness and enhanced ink or light-traps to ensure usability in smaller sizes.
Many cities used to have a dual-branding strategy. One brand displays the coat of arms, while the other has a tourist-friendly style – just as Freising did previously. The brand strategist Michael Heintschel briefed us to reconsider this approach. With a single logo, Freising now enjoys enhanced recognition and identification, leading to greater efficiency in saving both time and resources.

Under the head of the shield with the Bavarian lozenges in gold a striding black bear carrying on its back a red bundle tied with silver ribbons.

— House of Bavarian History

Layout principles

The new corporate design for the city of Freising should bring more consistency. The simple design principle is derived from the shield shape and the colors of the coat of arms. Thus, the yellow, as the carrier of the coat of arms, takes center stage in the visual presentation. It was important that the design framework is easily adaptable to all standard DIN formats and special formats.

In order to enable accessible communication for many people, we have designed an easily implementable and comprehensible corporate design system by defining well-thought-out basic elements with enough contrast and high legibility.

Korbinian’s package

The connection to the city of Freising and its special history could soon be close enough to touch. Since the bear tamed by St. Korbinian carried his luggage all the way to Rome, the people of Freising are now asked to carry on. The translation of the Korbinians bundle can appear today in the striking form of backpacks or bags. But in the future hopefully, even more products like rental bicycles or municipal vehicles will also carry a red bundle tied up with silver ribbons.

Proof of concept

Checking the brand assets – such as shapes and colors, across various media and sizes – is essential for creating a visual system that can be effectively utilized by multiple designers, thus maintaining a high standard in the subsequently defined corporate guide.

Black and white translation

An additional monochrome derivation is obligatory in the urban context for sending out notices, refinements and as a security feature.

Stationary

One of the most significant applications of city branding is still in stationary design, allowing citizens to have a more formal connection to the city. When branding office equipment and stationery, it’s essential to incorporate ample whitespace. The layout system featuring a yellow center stage is reserved for more commercially-oriented event-specific communication.

Online Brand Portal

As a single source of truth, we have created a freely accessible, constantly growing online brand portal. Here you will always find the latest version of all assets and templates.

All design elements are explained and, where appropriate, illustrated with short animations. The design templates are centrally available for all to download; overlapping dimensions help with the reconstruction and comprehensibility of proportions. Additional best-practice examples and mood boards give designers a good feel for the visuality of the brand.

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