Genova: a new logo for new perspectives GENOA´S LOCAL ACTION PLAN IN THE FRAME OF URBACT-CITYLOGO Aarhus | Alba Iulia | Coimbra | Dundee | Genoa | Oslo | Utrecht | Vilnius | Warsaw | Zaragoza Report by City Logo Operative Team: Raffaella Cecconi, Sergio Di Paolo, Marisa Gardella, Chiara Martorana, Gianluca Saba, Cesare Torre. Municipality of Genova, Deputy Major for Tourism and Culture Department, Communication and City Promotion Division, Communication Office, International Affairs Office. Genova, March 2015 Table of content MAYOR’S SPEECH Creuza de Ma 1.1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2. FRAMEWORK 2.1. Genoa: History, Changes and Perspectives 2.2. Belonging to the URBACT-CityLogo Project 2.3. The Genoa Local Support Group 3. PROBLEM ANALYSIS 3.1. New narrative for a city in transition 3.2. The need to attract visitors, investments, intelligence 3.3. The need for a new territorial marketing approach 4. LONG TERMS GOALS 4.1. Increase Genoa’s ability to attract 4.2. Develop coherent marketing strategy 4.3. Involving citizens in conveying their creative energies to welcoming strategies 5. SHORT/MEDIUM TERM OBJECTIVES 5.1. A new and effective visual identity for the city 5.1.1. A long history of circumstantial logos 5.2. Shared marketing plan 5.3. Providing ad-hoc governance, ensuring financing 6. ACTIVITIES IMPLEMETED AND COLLABORATIVE METHOD 6.1. LSG, focus groups, workshops and local media awareness 6.2. The City narrated by focus groups 6.3. Unveiling city’s truths in a collaborative way 6.4. From “focus groups” to workshops 6.5. Competition of ideas and urban visual identity 6.6. Organization of a memorable event for presentation of new city brand 6.7. Setting the basis for a permanent collaborative model 7. KEY ACTIVITIES 2014 - 2017 7.1. New visual identity 7.2. Standard promotion 7.3. Unique events with big impact 7.4. Expo Milano 2015 7.5. Socializing the new visual identity 7.6. Emergency Communication 7.7. Social Media 7.8. Promotional material, websites and press releases 7.9. Exchanges between Italian and European cities 8. APPENDIX - ATTACHMENTS In the incomplete letters that spell its name, Genoa declares that it is a city in constant transformation, with a multifaceted and complex identity. ‘More than this’ alludes to the discovery of what is hidden at first sight, or even at further glances, because Genoa is much more than what is generally known about it from the outside; it is very modest and austere in exposing itself to visitors. The logo the city has chosen is very ‘Genovese.’ The decision came only after a long and participatory process that was already in and of itself a way of presenting the brand to Italy and abroad, by thinking about itself and reflecting on the path taken and the horizon toward which it is headed. If we want to fix a date that this long path was undertaken, we must certainly go back to 1992, the year of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the Americas. At that time, thanks to Renzo Piano’s project, the old part of our port was opened for the city’s use and for tourism. The center of town got back its direct relationship with the sea, changing the perception of space and the imagination for a significant portion of our territory. Little by little, the city developed a commitment to tourism, with its wealth of artistic sites, a rich cultural patrimony and a first-rate landscape, with the largest medieval historical center in Europe, the Rolli palaces of the Renaissance, the Seventeenth century fortifications, the villas and the parks. Industrial Genoa, the Genoa of the port, is today committed to growing the potential of the port and to emerging as a place of research and high tech. It has stopped considering itself in the area of tourism as “the city near Portofino,” and has become the direct destination of a constant flow of Italian and foreign visitors who are attracted by its beauty, by the Aquarium, by the cultural events at Palazzo Ducale and its theatres. On the horizon, Genoa is planning to complete its waterfront, from the Porto Antico to the docks of the Fairgrounds. Once again, it will give shape to the pencil lines of Renzo Piano, to strengthen the relationship with the sea, to offer new possibilities to the industry of naval repair and to enhance the fairground space. In the so-called ‘Century of the Genovese’ as the era of the rich aristocracy of bankers who financed even the Court of Spain was defined, Genoa looked out on the world as it has always done in its age-old history of maritime and business traffic. Today it has to look toward the world to make itself known and to let itself be discovered. There are many Genovese among us who come from distant lands. Other times in history Genoa has known how to treasure and make the best of new arrivals, just as it suffered the pain of emigration. The brand of the city is not simply contained in a logo. In those incomplete letters and on that promise of ‘something more’ that the city has to offer, Genoa must know how to spread the message of hospitality and welcome, a pleasant invitation. Marco Doria Mayor of Genoa Ph: Facebook page: tutti quelli innamorati di Genova “Creuza de Ma” (The Mule Path to the Sea) What is (or maybe ‘who is’) Genoa? What is it hiding deep in its soul, what does it have to say in order to catch our attention and make us fall in love? What does it have, of the Mediterranean and of Europe together, that other cities don’t have? What story can it tell travelers and cultural nomads, and those seekers of professional and life experiences, what can it tell those inventors of innovation and the future, what can it tell those sailors on the seas of life? Ombre di facce, facce di marinai Shadows of faces, faces of sailors da dove venite, dov’è che andate Where are you coming from, where you are going. da un posto dove la luna si mostra nuda from a place where the moon shows itself naked e la notte ci ha puntato il coltello alla gola And night pointed the knife at our throats. e a montare l’asino c’è rimasto Dio Only God is left, to mount the donkey il Diavolo è in cielo e ci si è fatto il nido And the Devil is in heaven, and he built a nest there usciamo dal mare per asciugare le ossa da Let’s get out of the sea to dry ourselves at Andrea Andrea’s house alla fontana dei colombi nella casa di pietra. At the doves’ fountain at the stone house. E nella casa di pietra chi ci sarà And in the stone house who will be there? nella casa di Andrea che non è marinaio People like Andrea, who is not a sailor Gente di Lugano facce da tagliaborse People from Lugano, with pickpocket faces quelli che della spigola preferiscono l’ala People whose favorite part of the sea bass is the wing ragazze di famiglia, odore di buono Girls from good families who smell good che puoi guardarle senza preservativo. And you can look at them without needing a condom. E a queste pance vuote cosa gli darà And what to give these empty bellies? cose da bere, cose da mangiare Things to drink, things to eat frittura di pesciolini, bianco di Portofino Fried fish, white wine from Portofino cervelli di agnello nello stesso vino Lamb’s brains cooked in the same wine lasagne da tagliare ai quattro sughi Lasagna in a heavy meat sauce pasticcio in agrodolce di lepre di tegole. Sweet and sour sauce and rabbit from the roof. E nella barca del vino ci navigheremo sugli And in the boat of wine, we will sail onto the scogli rocks emigranti della risata con i chiodi negli occhi Immigrants of laughter with nails in our eyes Finché il mattino crescerà da poterlo Until morning will dawn, and you can gather it raccogliere fratello dei garofani e delle ragazze brother of carnations and girls padrone della corda marcia d’acqua e di sale Owner of the rope rotten with water and salt che ci lega e ci porta in una mulattiera di mare. That binds us together and brings us to the mule path that leads to the sea. 1.1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The creuze are the old little stone pathways bordered by bricks that still exist and that crisscross Genoa, connecting it to the sea. They are the dark alleyways of the Historical Center with the hills and mountains at their back. The Genovese creuze as steep and hard to climb as they are, let you touch the immense sky and breathtaking views. Fabrizio De Andrè, the famous Italian singer-songwriter from Genoa, wrote and sang “Creuza de Ma” in the local dialect, a mix of sounds and words absorbed from the sailors and Genoa’s merchants. “Creuza de Ma” is a metaphor for the whole city of Genoa and its identity which can often be difficult and uncomfortable, but is also bright and rich in opportunities. Through the CityLogo project, the city that once linked the Orient to the West, and in more recent times the Americas to Europe, the city that was the protagonist of the movement for Italian Unification and the Liberation from Fascism, has found new tools for revealing itself and for offering cultural and economic opportunities to travelers seeking alternatives. Today, the contemporary economic crisis and the critical level of territorial competitiveness have increased the urgency for finding new communication strategies both internal and external to the city.