Brand Avenue

Button, Button

As part of their end-of-decade coverage, Canada's National Post newspaper identified Spacing's fantastic "subway buttons" as one of the top ten examples of how Torontonians rediscovered their city over the last ten years. These stylish little pieces of metal make place into a fashion statement, and inspire civic re-engagement in the process:

The urban activists behind Spacing magazine created a batch of one-inch buttons featuring the tile designs and colour schemes of TTC subway platforms. We at the Post deemed them to be "the civic pride fashion statement of the year," and Mayor David Miller reportedly handed them out gleefully as if they were oversized Smarties. The magazine sold about 35,000 buttons in 2005. "People for the most part are proud of where they live and want to show that off," says Matt Blackett, publisher of Spacing magazine.

(Still love these. Stroke of genius to come up with them.)

More. Earlier.

Thing as Place

Under Consideration's reliably fascinating Brand New blog highlights a logo designed last year for Burnley, a city of roughly 75,000 in the north of England. Resembling a mass of tangled rubber bands, it no doubt makes a strong impression, albeit an abstract, overwrought one.

Would you believe that all those different colors are somehow supposed to represent different aspects of a place?

It is believed that the different coloured circles are intended to represent the different aspects of the town. The red is supposed to represent the urban part of Burnley, while the green symbolises the rural areas.

It also moves.

I understand the impulse to make the visual representation of a place as inclusive and multivalent as possible, as capturing a sense of place is so hard to pin down. I really do admire the effort.

However, the lingering impression--Burnley is anything and everything you want it to be--is one of confusion and vagueness. If it's about everything, then it's really about nothing. How is this town different from anywhere else?

More.