Brand strategy, corporate design and brand guidelines for the Smart City project of the city and district of Würzburg
Smart Region Würzburg
Smart Region Würzburg
01 Context
City and district of Würzburg step up as one region. In the federal programme "Modellprojekte Smart Cities" they want to strengthen social cohesion and make people more resilient. Over the run so far, the project "Smarte Region Würzburg" had grown, with ever new offers, many people involved, and no connecting communications strategy. What remained was a stack of project names, logos and single initiatives. A brand matryoshka that offered little orientation to the people it was meant for. The job was not a simple unification. What was needed was a brand strategy that orders this complexity, without pressing everything under one uniform umbrella.
02 Method
We first took the view of the people the offers are meant for. They shouldn't see an abstract strategy project. They should see reliable, understandable offers. From that came a brand architecture that puts the single offer brands at the centre. A multi-brand system as a deliberate build, instead of a forced umbrella. Each offer brand carries its own name, own focus and own visual identity, speaks to its audience directly, and will still exist beyond the funding period. The time-limited project "Smarte Region Würzburg" steps back as a bracket and makes room for "Region Würzburg", an umbrella that joins city and district and makes the shared work visible. So a small team can steer all of it, every brand follows the same principles: one typeface, one grid, recurring base elements, clearly defined room to play.
03 Result
From a hard-to-read tangle of names, logos and initiatives came a clear brand system. The architecture is flexible enough that offer brands can live on independent of the carrier, and that "Region Würzburg" can gather new themes under itself. The inter-municipal team today works with a corporate design that joins strategy, content focus and visual implementation, and can be looked after in daily life at a manageable effort. We documented everything in a web-based brand handbook, plus print, presentation templates and guidelines for digital touchpoints. From strategic thinking come tools you can actually use, with which administration, partners and residents take on the social tasks of the region together.
Client
Stadt Würzburg
Industry
Release
– today
Team
Book a call
01 Context
City and district of Würzburg step up as one region. In the federal programme "Modellprojekte Smart Cities" they want to strengthen social cohesion and make people more resilient. Over the run so far, the project "Smarte Region Würzburg" had grown, with ever new offers, many people involved, and no connecting communications strategy. What remained was a stack of project names, logos and single initiatives. A brand matryoshka that offered little orientation to the people it was meant for. The job was not a simple unification. What was needed was a brand strategy that orders this complexity, without pressing everything under one uniform umbrella.
02 Method
We first took the view of the people the offers are meant for. They shouldn't see an abstract strategy project. They should see reliable, understandable offers. From that came a brand architecture that puts the single offer brands at the centre. A multi-brand system as a deliberate build, instead of a forced umbrella. Each offer brand carries its own name, own focus and own visual identity, speaks to its audience directly, and will still exist beyond the funding period. The time-limited project "Smarte Region Würzburg" steps back as a bracket and makes room for "Region Würzburg", an umbrella that joins city and district and makes the shared work visible. So a small team can steer all of it, every brand follows the same principles: one typeface, one grid, recurring base elements, clearly defined room to play.
03 Result
From a hard-to-read tangle of names, logos and initiatives came a clear brand system. The architecture is flexible enough that offer brands can live on independent of the carrier, and that "Region Würzburg" can gather new themes under itself. The inter-municipal team today works with a corporate design that joins strategy, content focus and visual implementation, and can be looked after in daily life at a manageable effort. We documented everything in a web-based brand handbook, plus print, presentation templates and guidelines for digital touchpoints. From strategic thinking come tools you can actually use, with which administration, partners and residents take on the social tasks of the region together.
Client
Stadt Würzburg
Industry
Release
– today
Team
Book a call
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Thursday, August 27, 2026
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Let's find out if we're a fit.
Let’s get to know each other and see whether we’re the right fit for your project. From there, we can shape a solution around what you actually need.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
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