Paul Karanja's profile

Nairobi County Branding

Challenge:
Nairobi is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. Infact according to Euromonitor International, Nairobi is the fastest growing city in Africa in 2017. With Nairobi on such a success path, many foreign and local investors have invested heavily in this city in the sun. But for the good things Nairobi has it lacks one thing that is crucial for great success - A brand identity.
Being a Nairobi based Art Director & Branding Consultant, i felt obliged to play my part in growing my city, coz you know - Charity begins at home.

Response:
Inspired and challenged by what other cities globally had done with their identities, i set out to create a unique & bold brand identity for my city. As with any branding project i started with what was there and asking where is it broken, why its not working and how i can fix that with my expertise. Since i was dealing with an governmental institution, i had to craft a brand that would satisfy legal standards of an institutional logo (emblem/heraldry) and also a simple enough customer-facing brand that was easy to recognize and bold enough to represent Nairobi globally.
Its been a satisfying process for me personally to create an identity that is bold and unique enough to be the face of Nairobi.
I hope you enjoy looking through the case study, as much as i enjoyed working on it.
All images used are copyright respective owners. They were solely used for presentation.
Problem:
Lack of a well defined logo system and lack of consistency in application. Emblem & logo not well refined. Consistent way of naming ( City Council of Nairobi, City County of Nairobi, County of Nairobi, Nairobi City County )
Inspiration:

Dreams are valid!
So said Ms.Lupita Ny'ongo. In July 2017 Kenya hosted under 18 IAAF championships. And after immersing myself in this process of transforming the face and brand of Nairobi, i couldn't help but imagine, what if we hosted the 2028 oOympics. It may be a long shot, but hey - aim for the moon and land among the stars.
Moreover it was another chance to test if my new brand for Nairobi was flexible enough, while maintaining its strong aesthetics and communicating effectively.

Image courtesy - skyscraper.com
Thankyou.

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Email: hello@paul.co.ke

Nairobi County Branding
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Nairobi County Branding

Nairobi County is one of the 47 counties of Kenya. The smallest yet most populous of the counties, it is coterminous with the city of Nairobi, wh Read More

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