'A positive impression': Glen Innes Highlands and Severn Council brand refresh

Glen Innes Highlands (GIH) is the destination marketing brand for the Glen Innes Severn Council Government area and follows council's place-based 2020-2040 Economic development Strategy and the 2020-2025 Action plan.

The brand refresh was to evolve the GIH branding, products and experiences under a central contextual theme to bring together all the attributes of natural and cultural heritage whilst aligning to national, state and regional brands and campaigns.

The GIH vision reads as: "A strong, diversified and sustainable visitor economy that delivers significant social and economic benefits for the Glen Innes community".

The refresh of the GIH brand provides more versatile logo variations, options and orientations to suit a broader range of applications, a new colour palette and typography and a new brand styling and guide (outlining application, colour, language, tone, image and video styling).

Glen Innes General Manager Bernard Smith said initially the rebranding concept was around destination branding but after a series of discussions between council and graphic design company Keo Designs, it was agreed to expand the scope of the engagement to include the Glen Innes Severn Council brand refresh so both brands would in effect would receive the rebrand treatment together.

"We felt that the destination branding and council branding need to have an affinity, I think it's fair to say that the existing logo and branding is slightly dated," Mr Smith said.

"So we wanted to refresh, to rebrand into something more contemporary and more reflective of a modern community.

"Rather than launching into something completely new, bouncing off the Glen Innes highlands branding was a very logical thing to do as it's familiar, it looks good, it's accepted and people know of it, so in some respects it's not a dramatic change, we are just making out total branding a bit more uniform."

The most obvious change in the branding refresh is the Glen Innes Severn Council logo, which currently displays trees, rocks, mountains and a tartan print, it now resembles something more streamlined and sleeker.

There is also the 'Get in here' wordmark described as a 'warm hug' and a 'friendly invitation'.

"The branding update is a reflection on the organisation and there's a whole range of things which add up to giving a positive impression about an organisation," Mr Smith said.

"People want to feel like they are moving to a progressive area, they want to feel they're working for a progressive organisation and the branding is one part of imparting those impressions."