The search for a new city flag design + the unveiling of Experience Columbia SC’s new brick-red, block-C logo poses the question: What is Cola’s visual identity? What icons, aesthetic cues + graphical representations define who we are?

Ex. of other U.S. cities with strong visual symbolism:

🎺 New Orleans | purple + gold color scheme, jazz instruments, fleur de lis

🚖 NYC | the big apple, yellow taxes, iconic skyline, Broadway lights, the Statue of Liberty

Columbia has began to develop our own visual language in recent years – the Columbi-YEAH t-shirts + bumper stickers, the Fireflies lightning bug + mason jar – but we have yet to find a cohesive identity that has withstood the test of time.

From where does Columbia get its identity?

🏛 The in-town state government + big biz law firms

🎨 The burgeoning arts and culinary scene

🐔 The downtown state university

Who creates our signage?

Restaurateur Kristian Niemi turned to local design + print shop The Half And Half to brand his downtown bar + eatery, Bourbon. The logo matches its upscale, vintage saloon-feel, while connecting with the history behind their main product + Main St.

We've got our eye on Bourbon's Creole Seafood Pasta dish, made with crab, shrimp, alfredo, linguini, and fines herbs. | photo by @jaylawyu

One Columbia Executive Director Lee Snelgrove hopes the new flag design can be repurposed on tourism merchandise + in local business branding. Could the flag design help to form a cohesive visual identity for the City of Dreams? You have until July 10 to vote.

11 min read / Free Times