Culture and Branding: Aswaaq

In the process of learning as a designer, I become more and more conscious about how culture plays a big role in a design. I remember writing down an answer on my mid-exam sheet, asking about how culture gives an impact to politics, and decided to make a u-turn and write how culture gives an impact also in design field.

(also, Miss Witri if you read this post, I was making a huge mistake by writing Dubai as the capital city of Istanbul, I think I was so nervous and my thoughts were jumbling randomly. Istanbul is obviously not a country but the largest city in Turkey. Also, I meant to say that Dubai is a city in UAE. I am terribly sorry for my stupid mistake)

I knew about aswaaq while learning the case study from Landor associate that you can find here. Landor is one of the oldest and most popular branding company in the world based in USA. 

As you guys can see, the letter 'a' in aswaaq resembles woman wearing hijab. We can see how powerful the culture is in designing an identity of a company. As the majority of UAE citizens are moslems, and the women are wearing hijab, aswaaq wants to take an approach by having an emotional connection to their customers.

(image via behance)

Also, just from the letter 'a', there are so many things that they can make. You can see in the picture how the letter 'a' is developed into signage and symbols. 

(image via behance)

Also quoting from the case study that I stated previously, here is how Landor explains the overview:

Prior to its launch in 2008, Aswaaq, a Dubai supermarket, conducted an in-depth audit of the local retail landscape. It learned that although the emirate's other supermarket giants had a strong foothold in the market, most had difficulty making an emotional connection with customers. Most supermarkets offered the same products without a truly differentiated shopping experience. Additionally, Dubai has very unique cultural characteristics based on a blend of its own national heritage, ethnic diversity, and a strong international influence. Aswaaq aimed to offer a more community-minded supermarket catering to the diverse needs of a unique population.

(image via aswaaq)

aswaaq is only of of uncountable example of how culture is super relevant in designing. Even though Landor is from USA, the team learn about the culture in Dubai and implement it to the branding of aswaaq. As a result, not only is it a good design, but also it attracts people visually and emotionally.

To find out more about aswaaq, head over to the website here.

Cheers,

filicia

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