Home Sweet Borough

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Why do London’s Borough Councils need their own unique graphic identities? Is there a better, more efficient way for the various councils to communicate with their inhabitants? A number of factors have recently lead me to ponder this question. I think it started after having a look at the Legible London [legiblelondon.info] website put together by NLA [newlondonarchitecture.org] and the Mayor of London’s office. Seems folks have trouble finding their way around Olde London Town. Could be something to do with the wide variety of signage that changes from borough to borough. Something design agency Bibliothéque [bibliothequedesign.com] tackled after a recent request from This is Real Art [thisisrealart.com] to help promote Creative Review…

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The other thing that seems pretty evident from the assemblage of logos above is that many councils seem to find it hard to justify investing in keep their identities fresh and engaging. I mean, look at poor old ‘Southwark’. You get the impression that many of these marks and symbols are hang overs from the 80s and Britain’s ‘golden’ age of privitisation when it was expected that councils would be in some wierd sort of competition with one another. This idea of constituents as ‘customers’ has proved hollow with the steady rise of Council Tax which is too expensive to provide any sort actual ‘best value’ comparison. Councils as commercial bodies only work when Tourism is heavily involved, as is evident in the identity work for an aggressively marketed ‘destination’ like the City of Melbourne [thatsmelbourne.com.au].

So here’s the idea. The Olympics are coming up, London needs a lot of work. Let’s start with an umbrella identity for the various London Boroughs [wikipedia.org/london_boroughs] that can be easily applied to the various signage around town, so that means one standard set of typefaces for all the boroughs. Then each council could be allocated a colour palette (of no more than 2 or 3 colours) and a graphic element to go next to their name. This could be derived from the coat of arms that each council already has available to use. Then, to make the operation as cost effective as possible, all design work could be done from a central bureau, like a sort of design laboratory. Whaddya reckon?

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