A research on the urban identity and logo: Governorships logos example

Cities are the places where it is not possible to take a step towards the future without examining the historical phases. Making new plans for the city, creating a new foundation is possible by revealing the historical nature and the elements of identity that have been gained by history. Indeed, today, cities are still shaped by historical elements and culture. Natural environmental factors, cultural and permanent elements distinguish, define and sometimes name a city from others. The combination of cultural elements and the opportunities provided by technological developments can contribute to the development of the city. The identity of the city and the visual identity in particular are in the field of communication sciences in terms of graphic design as well as architecture. The visual elements of the city are important in terms of providing identity to the city and protecting and developing the identity of the city. Considering that cities are a powerful symbol of a complex society, visual communication means will strengthen this meaning by highlighting this powerful symbol. In this sense, the city logos have an influence above and beyond their symbolic meanings, that is, their visible and attention identities at first glance. When planning and designing the city, it is a necessity to have visual designs that will serve the future of the city and integrate its identity and mission. As a matter of fact, the communication and information age that reveals a new city structure is formed under the dominance of images and visuality which are more important than infrastructure. At this point, the question of whether the city logos used today meet the elements of urban identity and the aims of visual identity. The main purpose of this study is to reveal the extent to which urban identity elements and visual identity objectives are met in urban logos. This 38 governorships logo from Turkey, purpose, historical and cultural elements it contains are chosen based on sampling purposes in mind. The logos we determined were first analyzed in the context of urban identity by considering the purposes of visual identity Perry and Wisnom (2004: 79) after analyzing the meaning of meaning (connotative), meaning (denotative) and color used in the semiotic method of Barthes.