Thinking | DNCO

“Our role as place branding professionals transcends the ups and downs of economic weather and has a much longer horizon.”

Four things we learned at City Nation Place

As this globally renowned place branding conference took place in the UK this September, we had the privilege of hosting a roundtable discussion with people on the forefront of placemaking.

Best, most, first? Why place branding should look beyond being number one

There’s an obsession with being number one. It started with biggest, tallest and newest and has spread into coolest and best connected. But audiences aren’t as easily convinced. So how do we connect beyond the headline?

A wee manifesto: clear toilet signage please

If we’re happy with a coffee cup signposting us to a cafe, then why does signage get all coy when it comes to toilets? DNCO’s head of innovation, Patrick Eley, argues that it’s time to de-twee this most urgent of wayfinding.

DNCO partners with TfL to engage with Londoners on naming the London Overground lines

Every weekday, around 700,000 people catch the London Overground. Now the Mayor of London has pledged to give its six lines separate names.

What can university brands learn from places?

In ecology, the most extreme places on earth are undersea vents or the wastes of Antarctica. In place branding? University campuses.

‘Love is the running towards’: homage to London Fire Brigade

Our posters for London Design Festival celebrate the heroism of firefighters and 150 years of fire brigade design

The whimsical and deliberate work of Tiffany Beucher

With soft yet confident linework, these illustrations add a playful note to our new website

Why new places need meanwhile’s imperfect magic

Seen as soulless, manicured or too perfect, here’s how brand new developments can win hearts

Unreal estate: making places for the Metaverse age

We dismiss the Metaverse at our peril; find out why at Virtually Everywhere, our exhibition for London Design Festival

Create a visual fingerprint for anywhere on earth

Try out our custom tool that generates a different image for any location

A glossary of hostile architecture

Anti-climb paint, armrests and arrowslits are only the beginning of how urban spaces change behaviour

Why now is the time to move on from ‘Live Work Play’

The mantra so ubiquitous that Florida used it twice. Come on, developers, surely we have more to say?

Is your city manipulating you?

Exposing the tactics of public spaces to welcome and ward off for London Festival of Architecture

Inspiration week

Why we’re closing the DNCO studio on 21 June for the first time in 15 years

I AM overrun by tourists

A cautionary tale of I AMsterdam’s success

Is New York still where love lives?

Milton Glaser’s beloved ‘I ♥ NY’ logo in the post-emoji world

Put a bird on it!

The benefits and pitfalls of keeping Portland weird

The campaign Toronto didn’t pay for

How Drake reminded the city what it was made of

London’s logos, decoded

Each of our 32 boroughs has its own logo. But what does this municipal clipart tell us about the capital’s identity?

DNCO