Attn. Design Nerds: Here’s The City Of Philadelphia’s Brand Bible

It will give a certain type of design-nerd person [raises hand] deep satisfaction to learn that in a city where, often, chaos is our brand, the City of Philadelphia maintains a brand bible that is open and available to the public. And as these things go, this is a pretty good one. 

Brand bibles, for the uninitiated, are the go-to documents where any concern can have it down definitively how they best communicate who they are, whether it’s with visuals, copy, or anything else. One of the best things about brand bibles is that they once and for all lay down the exact shades of colors a brand uses. And after a lifetime here with a loosey-goosey sense of what Philly’s official colors are, this writer felt an actual boost in serotonin upon seeing the color palette above.

Three shades of “Ben Franklin Blue” feels just right, of course, even if these blues are significantly less out-there than the man himself was. But they’re denim-y, and thus down to earth, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That “Bell Yellow” is always a fave, too. (That’s where we pulled Philebrity’s current social media icons from.) What felt like news to these eyes were the ancillary colors — those “Kelly Drive Greens,” and hey, how nice would it be to see some more of that pink or light yellow in official City communications? (You likely won’t so just steal ‘em for yourself!)

Elsewhere, one can likewise get final clarity on the City’s official logo:

I’ll say it so you don’t have to: It’s not good. But it’s not embarrassing, either. It’s just there. This one was definitely designed by community — I would like to publicly pour some out here for the designer who had to traffic the edits and feedback on this job — and sure, it’s us. But it could be any other concern that has “liberty” or “bell” in its brand. Count your lucky stars, though: If Philadelphia were a small city in, say, Florida, it could just as easily have been a pretzel 69-ing a hoagie. 

There’s a lot more to dig into — hey hey hey, get your official Philadelphia powerpoint templates here — but also, there is some generally good, common sense communications practices here that anyone can use. For instance:

How does your blog content advance the department’s mission and goals? Blogs should reinforce information that is already public.

Blog posts:

Are social.

Have personality and use more informal language.

Use tone that aligns with the department while being friendly and professional.

Are often written in the first person.

Done and done. Thanks again for everything, Philadelphia!