A city brand has two dimensions to consider, one that remains in the mind and the other that affects attitude and behavior. Therefore, when talking about a city brand, two objective and abstract dimensions should be considered.

The objective dimension of a city brand, which engages the audience’s mind with itself at first glance and, if it has sufficient power of visual expression, brings the audience with it, actually means the formation of a relatively lasting or stable image in the mind. This dimension can help the audience to understand what is important in the urban environment. Then, the brand image, through the transfer of environmental values ​​to the audience’s mind, affects his feelings and causes the formation of “mental identity” between the audience and the environment. Therefore, the brand image can turn the city or a part of the urban environment into an element or meaning in the mind. This mentalization causes a distinct sense of place compared to other cities or urban environments in the audience’s mind and causes the mental image to be formed based on common values ​​between the environment and the mind.

But the important point is that the brand image can lead to element creation, meaning creation or memory creation when it expresses the common value that can be understood between the audience and the urban environment. To understand how this common value is formed, it should be noted that on the one hand, what is in the mission of the brand image is to transfer and plant the concept of urban identity (environmental or socio-cultural) in the form of shapes, objects and colors in the audience’s mind, and on the other hand, this Objectivity comes to mind when it corresponds to a common identity element for the audience. Therefore, the image of the brand with all its visual and artistic values, if it does not match the common identity between the mentality of the audience and the urban environment, it cannot lead to the creation of an urban brand. In short, it can be said that the brand image depends on a deeper concept called “brand identity” and in fact, the brand image will be the visual translation of the brand identity.

Experts active in the urban branding research center in the Mammoth Urban Innovation Studio, with an emphasis on understanding the values, capacities and existing assets in the economic-social, cultural and physical-spatial dimensions of the city, try to create an understandable, visual and tangible translation of the existing assets. provide a city in the form of brand identity and image. Therefore, the proposed branding process in this studio is aimed at discovering the urban brand that has been organically formed over the years in the heart of the target urban community and is familiar, respected and valuable to all its citizens.