Amsterdam. Triple X City Branding Deluxe.

Juni 21st, 2010 • Allgemein, Brands, Underway, We like

My new hometown Amsterdam is a unique city in many different ways. Its liberal laws, its multicultural approach, its channels and of course its beauty stuns me and millions of tourists every other day. One thing I like in particular is the city’s strong sense for branding. Amsterdam does not only know about its brand values, it also stages its corporate design consistently wherever you go.

Amsterdam’s branding is based on the city’s coat of arms. It consists of a red shield and a black pale with three silver Saint Andrew’s Crosses, the Imperial Crown of Austria, two golden lions, and the motto of Amsterdam. And as usual, such complex Coats of arms do not come with a simple story. Of course, there are different theories, especially where the three crosses came from. Sure, Wikipedia knows more…

Some people say the three saltires represent the three dangers of ancient Amsterdam: fire, floods, and the Black Death. That theory however has no historical basis. The crosses probably have their origin in the shield of the noble family Persijn. The knight Jan Persijn was ‘lord’ of Amstelledamme (Amsterdam) from 1280 to 1282.^[1]In the escutcheons of Dordrecht and Delft, two other cities in Holland, the pale refers to water. In analogy with this, the black pale in the escutcheon of Amsterdam would refer to the river Amstel.

By the way, I learned one funny fact about Amsterdam’s Coat of Arms.

The city symbol for Amsterdam is “XXX”, although no one really knows why. During the 60’s and 70’s, pornography was only legally available in the Netherlands, and when people would receive packages of this nature, it would have the symbol of XXX on it to note where it came from. This is how “XXX” or “X-rated” became associated with erotica.

Back to the branding topic. I have never walked the streets of any city and witnessed such a high sense about branding. The coat of arms and especially the three X’s are everwhere. Check out just some of these examples of Amsterdam’s city corporate design.

These are just some of literally thousands of examples. I love the consistence in pretty much every visual aspect of the city’s branding. I am just astonished that the official campaign of Amsterdam does not make use of the Triple X’s.

I am a big fan of city and nation branding. Do you know other great examples or links about it? Post it as a comment. I am happy to read about it.
.

Tags: Amsterdam, Branding, Brands, Cool, Underway, visual, World

Trackback URI.