St Gilles Gillis
Bringing visual simplicity to one of Brussels’ most diverse municipalities
The municipality of Saint Gilles/Sint Gillis is renowned for its multicultural population and heritage.
We decided to approach the redesign of Saint Gilles/Sint Gillis’
identity as we would a brand.
Traditional heraldry featuring the local patron saint was also simplified and capped by the postcode (1060) to create a pictogram.
We made the radical choice of using just one sans serif typeface in one weight. This guarantees both a long-lasting design across all media and ease of use of the identity by municipal staff and external partners if required.
Rethinking St Gilles Gillis channeled something essential to the municipality: its architecture and landmark buildings. Intricate yet simple and recogniszable line drawings of the local places where all things administrative happen were produced to be featured on the corresponding services’ stationery and signage.
The identity was also partnered with the idea of the municipality becoming a friendly, approachable voice addressing its inhabitants in each and every language spoken by them.