Before adopting its current branding, the City of Simpsonville's logo had several design elements that were seen on many city logos of that era — a streetlamp, a water tower, a row of storefronts.
One of the images, however, contains a true symbol of Simpsonville: the brick clock tower, situated downtown along Main Street. The faces of the clock have a diamond shape as part of the construction, and those diamond shapes turn up in many other buildings around the city. They became a part of the new City of Simpsonville brand, which features three diamonds across the top of the word "Simpsonville."
Simpsonville's branding is distinguished by the three diamonds as
well as variants of the "Simply Home" tagline. Photo: City of Simpsonville
The design is simple, but it connects to the community in a real way., As Simpsonville Community Relations Specialist Justin Campbell notes, that kind of authenticity is necessary in a city brand, and it's necessary to truly believe in the brand. The public, he said, understands when city officials have no passion for it.
"If you're not proud of it, they're certainly not going to be proud of it," he said.
For many cities and towns, a brandmark can appear on everything from the welcome sign to the side of a garbage truck to the clothes worn by staff. They're often the product of a consulting firm and a wide-ranging community survey process.
Campbell was tasked with overseeing a rebranding process when he entered into his position. He said that the city council expressed concerns during the process that the brand might be too generic, but he advocated for the versatility of it. In addition to the full logo, the branding scheme uses a simpler icon for contexts where the full logo does not fit — the "S" superimposed on the diamond.
The theme of simplicity also carried into the very brief tagline — "Simply Home" — and the true versatility of the branding lies in that phrase. Simpsonville uses seemingly endless variants of it as a tagline and hashtag for different contexts: "Simply Historic," "Simply Connected" and "Simply Musical," among others. For example, the ribbon cutting of a new restaurant might use "Simply Delicious" as a banner in the photo, while advertisements for the city's Christmas events use "Simply Joyful" and "Simply Bright."
From the time the branding launched in 2019, Campbell said the city worked to make heavy use of it — only when the brand feels familiar can it truly work as a symbol of the city.
"When you're working with a brand, it's psychological," he said. "If they feel like you're forcing something on them like this, they will shy away from it."
In the City of Florence, the current branding dates to 2017, which as Marketing, Communications and Municipal Services Director Amanda Pope noted, was a moment in time when many in the city felt encouraged about the city's successes. An ongoing effort to redevelop a struggling downtown district had caught traction and began attracting new businesses and events.
Florence's branding is used on everything from vehicle wraps to
clothing to pole banners. Photo: City of Florence.
To reflect this sense of progress and optimism, the new brand included an arrow pointing ahead and the tagline "Full Life. Full Forward." The written "brand mission" that was part of the project drew attention to Florence's aim to stand out as an innovative city, reading, "We are a beacon of progress. Our economy and social diversity offer boundless opportunities and enormous assets."
While a brand can connect to a city's economic development efforts and can catch the eye of businesses that may want to move in, Pope said that a brand should also address the existing residents, not just visitors, and promote community pride.
"We want people to reconnect and love their community," she said. "Give people reasons to — when they see that piece of trash — to not just walk over it, but reach down and pick it up, because they're a part of that community."
A good city or town brand can help convey the soul of the community, but Pope described brands as something that need to be aspirational as well.
"Your brand is more than just a tagline, it's a promise," she said. "It's telling your community who you are, who you want to be, what you want to provide."