SO Gipuzkoa | –move | Creative Brand Consultancy

Starting point.

The brand image surveys carried out with the target public pointed out two key data for undertaking this project. On the one hand, although the brand that we had to build should represent the whole territory, the main tourist attraction is "San Sebastian", and its name in Basque, "Donostia", is not recognised in the Basque language either, except locally. On the other hand, the potential tourist of the territory does not know the concept of "Gipuzkoa", does not know how to locate it on a map, and does not relate it to San Sebastian. It was clear that the important challenge was to balance the prominence of San Sebastian, without losing sight of the fact that this brand must promote the entire province of Gipuzkoa, which has many plans, many places to discover, in addition to San Sebastian.

In this way, we were able to set objectives and lines of action to be able to evaluate ideas and see if we were on the right track.

The role of design.

Design is the lever to transform a strategy into a tangible reality. In our head and our retina we had exercises like Milton Glasser's in New York, or closer and more recently the incredible project for Oporto by Eduardo Aires. His words published in El País inspire us to build an image-message-place ensemble and see how design is the catalyst to materialise a mission and transform a territory.

"With a long view, design can serve to dignify public space, to facilitate the lives of citizens. It can serve to establish an identity that helps us to know how to tell ourselves and therefore generate personality, belonging, inclusiveness and awareness."

"We were looking for a new paradigm in the image of cities; we didn't want to sell the city as a brand, but to create a system, a language that explains the city. And that is new. The brand is by-point. The rest is language, grammar, city"

A new... logo?

We needed to come up with a concept that appealed to what makes us Gipuzkoans different and welcoming. Because Gipuzkoa is a territory that stands out for its authentic, different, unique, characterful, robust personality... We needed to go beyond "a logo" that would represent the Department of Tourism, through its cold "function", and we opted for a brand that would launch a message capable of questioning those who receive it and transmitting everything that Gipuzkoa means, what it hides, what it transmits, what it promises.

Maybe you don't know where it is. Perhaps you haven't heard of it, you wouldn't know how to locate it on a map, nor are you sure how to pronounce its name. Maybe it's not her you're looking for, but a famous bay, a starred restaurant, a museum nestled in a forest, exquisite little morsels, or a cliff from which to understand millions of years of history. And when you discover it, you feel that Gipuzkoa was waiting for you, that it has everything you were looking for.

MUY Gipuzkoa.

It is a declaration of intentions, a brand-claim that suggests and includes an experience in itself, a message that invites you to live an experience. This is VERY GIPUZKOA - San Sebastian as a tourist attraction and asset, but much more, everything that this concept encompasses: our regions, our culture, our character.

We want to transmit all that Gipuzkoa has to offer, but we don't just want you to see it, we want you to feel it, smell it, touch it, listen to it. Because that is what Gipuzkoa is all about. Gipuzkoa is VERY. We are VERY GIPUZKOA - San Sebastian.

New visual territory.

To give prominence to the towns and cities that make up the province, we gave shape to a "texture" that will help us in print and digital media, with various animations, to have an element to play with that forms a typographic map so that all the places feel represented by this brand, and gradually become part of the tourist's imagination.

Together with it, we chose some typographies with a lot of personality and we designed a clean visual style, where the image and the video that will help us to portray plans and possibilities have a lot of prominence.

SO Gipuzkoa On Air!

After this work, there was still a powerful launch in networks, for which we prepared a spot - campaign that would serve to explain the new focus of the Department and launch the new brand to represent Gipuzkoa in different media and social networks. In the spot, as well as portraying that there are different ways of sharing, celebrating, growing and looking, we played with the concept that Gipuzkoa is a rich territory that encompasses many experiences that are difficult to portray in a few seconds. We bring a little piece of a land that surprises you, transforms you, and we invite you to come.

From Gipuzkoa to the world.

Since its presentation to society, the MUY Gipuzkoa brand and message has begun to take root in different institutional communication initiatives. It has a long future to continue growing and being present in different activities. From -move we have given shape to this concept, through a brand, a claim and a campaign that works as an attraction for tourists, but also works as an identity element to bring the Department's actions closer to Gipuzkoa society.

A great project carried out by the -move team and with the confidence of Azahara Domínguez, Provincial Councillor; Iñigo García, Director of the Department of Tourism; Beñat Muñoz, Head of Communication and Ahead for the production of the spot. The photo credit of Eduardo Aires is by Felipe Goes, Planta Baixa & Cardiogramas, 2016.