Nation Branding Now (NBN) is a repository of visual assets used to brand the state (as well as your favourite sub-national administrative divisions!). Corporate brand management is in ascendance within the public sphere. In an interdependent world where borders and boundaries appear increasingly blurred, careful control of a cohesive jurisdictional "brand" serves to construct distinctiveness. NBN seeks to chronicle the rapidly-evolving process through which states create, redefine, and control national identity.
In the NBN project, one will find a historical catalogue of brand identity strategies, logos, books, and memos issued by governments near and far, small and large, wealthy and less-so. Whether you are a social scientist wading into this exciting sub-domain of soft power, a designer looking for inspiration, or just a curious passer-by, you are cordially invited to take a look around.
The NBN project is now live at https://nationbrandingnow.com.
The project has an extensive suite of documentation explaining why we take the decisions we do.
The source code used to display NBN content is made available under the MIT licence. The content of the project itself, including content linked to or furnished by third parties, has heterogeneous use limitations. The docs contain a short primer on re-use if one wishes to duplicate NBN content. Do be aware that some protected government marks and emblems have very narrowly-defined or exceptional protections under law. It comes with the territory – we are an open reference that describes protected marks, so some assets are by their very nature non-free and require the end user to have a statutory exception. Exercise caution and familiarize yourself with all applicable rules in your home jurisdiction.