New council brand

Former chief executive David Langford initiated the brand project in 2023.

Why rebrand

There were two things driving the rebrand.

Firstly, we wanted our community to easily recognise what’s council and what isn’t.

Secondly, the council brand is part of how Whanganui is experienced, whether you live here or are just passing through. Whanganui is known as an attractive destination and when people come and spend time here, that’s good for local businesses. We wanted to support that with a modern, well-designed council brand that fits with our heritage and reflects the awa.

Designer

We regularly work with local designers and always look for that where we can.

For this project, we needed someone with experience in delivering a full brand rollout that would make the council recognisable across signage, digital channels, reports, vehicles and everything in between.

We ended up choosing an Auckland-based designer with strong ties to Whanganui through studying at the former Whanganui School of Design and whānau connections.

Costs

All costs were met through existing budgets. Communications spending in areas such as advertising had been reduced, and these savings were redirected into the brand work.

Costs are being kept down through a gradual rollout over two to five years – so rather than replacing all signage and materials at once, updates will happen as items naturally need replacing.

There have been questions about costs, particularly the $61,800 figure shared. That figure referred specifically to the brand design component of the work. The total project cost was $116,899 which included wider specialist input as well as the design work itself. We should have been clearer about that breakdown from the outset.

More info

More information is available here: Our brand Whanganui District Council