MANAGING SILESIA VISUAL IDENTITY THROUGH REGIONAL AND LOCAL LOGO DESIGN

Abstract

Developing coherent and comprehensive regional and city brands is of vital importance for places, as branding can contribute to the success achieved in tourism, investment and thus the region itself. There seems to be a recognizable gap in the literature regarding the application of visual signs used in place marketing that should present a city, region or country. The paper outlines the most important challenges as well as faults in management of visual identity in Silesia region, in Poland. The research attempts at identifying and analysing logos of cities and communes of the Silesian Voivodship (pol. województwo śląskie). The main purpose of this exploration is to describe the Silesian visual identity through practiced visual signs called logos. The authors try to find solutions for the following research questions: 1. What trends are typical for visual presentation of the cities in the Silesian Voivodship? 2. What image of the region is presented when exploring logos of the Silesian cities? 3. How is logo practiced in public management in the Silesia Voivodship? Content analysis was used to obtain visual identity of the cities. First the authors tried to collect all logos and then analysed them using the Per Mollerup’s taxonomy. The results of the study illustrate how self-government institutions, which are responsible for promotion of the place, portray the Silesian cities in marketing communication.