For the past 18 months (or so) various members of City staff have been working with an eclectic mix of consultants and volunteers to examine the City’s “branding”. We took a look at the City’s use of color, image, and design and examined how both citizens and non-citizens of Eden Prairie were perceiving Eden Prairie. We looked at not only how they perceived the city government of Eden Prairie, but also the total image of Eden Prairie.
We care about how our citizens perceive Eden Prairie for obvious reasons. We care about how non-citizens perceive Eden Prairie because we believe it is in everyones’ interest in Eden Prairie for people everywhere to have a positive opinion of the community. I want people who live in Eden Prairie to be happy they chose to live here. I want people who do not live in Eden Prairie to wish they did or could. This is good for our community morale, but it’s also good for the citizens who own property here, who also happen to be the people that support the operations of our city government through their property taxes. What’s good for them is ultimately good for us.
The city government does many things already to create a desirable image of Eden Prairie by accomplishing the regular functions that a city government does on a daily basis. We keep try to keep the place clean and safe. We create beautiful parks and trails. If we can help to sustain the perception out there that Eden Prairie is a highly desirable community through our use of imagery and passive marketing, then I think we are accomplishing something of value for our citizens.
Here’s our current City logo:
Here’s the keystone image of the City’s new branding identity, effective January 1, 2005:
The new identity system uses black, yellow, and orange colors to providing a striking contrast, visibility, and to represent the vibrant nature of the City. The rectangular shape of the logo design gives it a sense of stability and allows the image to be split into modules, if necessary for a specific use. I have used the image vertically, but it can also be used horizontally too. I like that aspect of the design because we have so many different uses for a design like this. The tag line can be included, or not. It works either way. We could substitute the word “Minnesota” for the tagline and it works just as well. Flexibility was important to me in selecting a new design.
The tag line “Live. Work. Dream.” is a restatement of what we heard from the focus groups we used to hone the design. They told us over and over that Eden Prairie had it all. In the words of one young female focus group participant: “Eden Prairie has everything you need. You just need to make the right choices.” Maybe a little corny, but I’ve thought about that a lot. I think she may have hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Look for our new brand identity to be everywhere in 2005.
Everywhere.
