With the re-affirmed death of the City of Champions tagline, Edmonton seems finally ready to look forward and discover what a City of Edmonton brand could look like in a post-sports world.

When the EEDC was tasked with looking at Edmonton's branding, much of what they came up with had to do with entrepreneurship and makers. This focus on enabling Edmontonians themselves to shape Edmonton's entrepreneurial image materialized quite prominently in Make Something Edmonton. This year marked the second year of 100in1day, a Make Something Edmonton festival that focused on enabling citizens to create a hundred placemaking events in one day.

The EEDC themselves have been focusing on advertising Edmonton as a place that is open and welcoming to innovation.

When Trump issued his controversial travel ban, the EEDC was ready to welcome people to Edmonton.

From one of their promotional package released with this week's report comes the line:

What are you making? How can we help?

This best summarizes what the EEDC wants Edmonton to be in the world's eyes: a place where great innovation can happen, and where the city enables the activity, rather than imposing barriers and red tape.

So what does the beginning of the new brand strategy look like?

Mayor Don Iveson was careful to remark in committee that this is not yet a brand. It's a wordmark.

But it represents the start of a new direction for Edmonton's public brand. We're not identifying ourselves with a tagline that reduces Edmonton. We're happy to just be ourselves. Edmonton is Edmonton. Edmonton McEdmontonFace.

When this discussion comes up, cost is always referenced as a factor, so I've included the costs below.

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