INTL. REVIEW BY PASCAL LACROIX POSTED BY Brand New

Once in a Belgian Blue Moon

The city of Mechelen (population 80,000) is the tenth largest city of Belgium, located between Brussels and Antwerp. Exactly 175 years ago, this town harboured the first railway station on the European continent. Nowadays, Saturday afternoons could be spent at Mechelen’s Planckendael zoo or its historical market square. You can also find there the Saint Rumblod’s cathedral which is featured on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The nickname for the inhabitants of Mechelen, “the Maneblussers” traces back to the events on the night of 28 January 1687. The local people mistook the reflection of the full moon in the stained glass of the cathedral for a fire, and they frantically started to rush in all available extinguishing equipment, only to discover their silly mistake. The yellow disk in the former logo represents this episode of the city’s history.

After a period of revamping the city’s neighbourhoods, the city council sought a more modern approach in their communication and decided to update the city logo. A survey showed three core values of the city: surprising, dynamic and cordial. In November 2009, a new logo and a new tagline “Het Lef van Mechelen” (“The Guts of Mechelen”) was presented. This launch included a “human logo” of 200 local volunteers participating in a performance at the central market.

Soon after, protests arose which focused on two points. Where the former logo incorporated the moon fire episode of Mechelen, the new logo did not offer any link to the city’s past. Furthermore, the traditional colors of Mechelen — which are red and yellow and featured on the coat of arms, the city flag, the popular local soccer team, and most important, the old city logo — were not included. Ignoring Mechelen’s color scheme angered most of the population. A Facebook group against the re-branding gathered 4,000 members. A regional newspaper began their own competition in order to find a replacement.

In reaction to this protest, the city council issued some press statements:

“It fits the personality of Mechelen to express their concerns as directly and bluntly as possible, especially in issues close to our heart, issues we care about. Hate and love are next to each other. The stronger the reaction, the more engaged you are. Similar reactions can be found when another city or radio station launches a new logo. You always have to renew a logo. The logo of Mechelen is very pure and simple. That is its strength, but also its weakness.”
— Mechelen press statement

In its communication, the city described the new logo as multilayered, yet simple. Everyone can decide what they want to see in it: a blue moon disk, a medieval house, a bishop’s miter as reference to the seat of the Belgian archbishop in Mechelen. In short, the city council still sticks to the new logo, but if you ask me, a logo with too much undefined meaning ends up having no meaning at all and will leave a city’s population puzzled and confused.

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The city of Mechelen (population 80,000) is the tenth largest city of Belgium, located between Brussels and Antwerp. Exactly 175 years ago, this town harboured the first railway station on the European continent. Nowadays, Saturday afternoons could be spent at Mechelen's Planckendael zoo or its historical market square. You can also find there the Saint Rumblod's cathedral which is featured on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The nickname for the inhabitants of Mechelen, \"the Maneblussers\" traces back to the events on the night of 28 January 1687. The local people mistook the reflection of the full moon in the stained glass of the cathedral for a fire, and they frantically started to rush in all available extinguishing equipment, only to discover their silly mistake. The yellow disk in the former logo represents this episode of the city's history.

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