Marginal Notes: CitID: A Global Visual Anthology of City Identities

CitID describes itself as follows:

"CitID is ambitious project aiming to gain global consciousness by giving a (type)face to every city worldwide; big or small, rich or poor, famous or infamous, well-known or unheard-of.
Ever heard of Tegucicalpa? How about Sandnes or Brunswick? Probably not. Right now they're just hard-to-pronounce foreign words that you will not remember. The fact is, they are all cities somewhere on our planet. Places you're most likely never to visit. Through this project you will become aware of them, and maybe even remember their names; Here you get to meet them personally and visually, in an inspiring artistic context.
Our hope is that creatives from around the globe will make a logo or a visual interpretation of the city closest to their heart. The universal goal is that every city ultimately gets their own identity on CitID, and that both the city and it’s aesthetic contributor gets recognition through this library - a place where you come for visual inspiration and leave with more knowledge about the world we live in."

As of June 4, 2010, submissions have been received by all continents. The greatest number of submissions are from the US and the UK. To date, none of Canada's cities have been represented!

I think this is a fun and engaging project. My fear is that the trend to brand cities to attract capital could undermine the potential to showcase regional artists and aesthetics.

Yilmaz-Saygin explains:

"Due to the increasing competition between cities, many cities ‘re-package’ themselves and their resources to present an attractive image. Place promotion involves the creation of a positive image for cities to draw investment and to earn a competitive edge in the global marketplace.
Urban branding is representing a city through the creation and selection of certain place images. In one respect, one might say that branding places in general and cities in particular is a way of inscribing a certain logic in space – both symbolically through logos, slogans and the likes, but also materially through construction of buildings, infrastructures and landmarks. The emergence of ‘Urban Lifestyle Magazines’ also play significant role of urban branding as being an important voice in the articulation of the city’s self-perception and thus ultimately the urban brand.

While cautious of the commodification of cities, let me offer some of my favourite images that have been submitted to CitID to date.