MES Barcelona by

Client: Ajuntament de Barcelona
Year: Ongoing
Tags: Brand Narrative, Branding, Campaign, Concept, Graphic Design, Identity, Illustration, Motion
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The Barcelona City Council, in collaboration with energy companies that operate in the city, has developed Mecanisme Energètic Sostenible (Sustainable Energy Mechanism), a new energy transformation plan which will provide buildings with solar panels at zero cost, so that they can create green energy for the households within.

To communicate this initiative, we have designed a brand and created a campaign which aims to make the policy understandable and attractive. We have created a clear narrative and a light-hearted graphic universe that talks to people and motivates them to make the move towards renewable energy.

For the naming, we realised that the acronym that came from the technical name of the plan itself could be transformed into the word “més”, which in Catalan means “more”, so we named the initiative MES Barcelona, (‘More Barcelona’). Besides comprising the innovative aspects of the brand, the acronym gives it an emotive component, and is also short and easy to remember.

Drawing from this idea, we created a declinable ‘mother’ claim that used “more” as a quantity noun: ‘MES Barcelona és més futur’ (‘More Barcelona is more future’). To develop the narrative, we focused on the core values of sustainability, green energy, economic savings and quality of life, and created claims for each, organising the main ideas and wrapping up the content of the campaign. 

As for the graphic part, we wanted to avoid a traditional representation of the renewable energy universe, which tends to be out of reach for most people. Instead, we chose to represent the positive outcome of the policy, through surrealistic illustrations of everyday characters in a colourful style, giving the campaign a playful and positive approach.

The chromatography played an important part in the design, with yellow being the main colour as it is easily relatable to the sun, the source of energy we are focusing on. We wanted to establish MES as a brand, so it was important to create a visual system that would make it recognisable and that provided it with an identity.

The campaign has been rolled out through both online and offline channels: it has been spread on social media through a digital activation plan, and through traditional mass media by creating a radio ad for the main broadcast channels. Also, we believed that the environment where the campaign should be seen was the city itself, where it can be strategically placed in certain areas.

MES Barcelona | FOLCH
MES Barcelona | FOLCH
MES Barcelona | FOLCH
MES Barcelona | FOLCH
MES Barcelona | FOLCH

Altogether, MES Barcelona has been created as an umbrella brand that aims to connect all of the actions and initiatives related to sustainability and environment within the Barcelona City Council from now on, with a broader narrative and conceptual framework.

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Brand Narrative, Branding, Campaign, Concept, Graphic Design, Identity, Illustration, Motion. Ajuntament de Barcelona. Ongoing