Iskandar is a new 2,217 sq acre development region established by the Malaysian government in 2006. The neighbourhoods have been constructed quite quickly and generally look homogeneous. It is hard to tell where one neighbourhood begins and ends. Our solution is "place branding", the process of image communication to a target market. It is invariably related to the notion that places compete with other places for people, resources, and business. The neighbourhoods of Iskandar are competing with each other for tourist income, business, and tax bases. With deep experience in Themeparks, we specialize in tourist branding and our indicator of brand quality is how "Instagrammable" the neighbourhood is. Look to the trends in the food industry where thousands of photos are taken of a single restaurant for posting on various social media platforms. The clear "Instagram" winner so far in Iskandar is Puteri Harbour, who has clearly differentiated themselves and has conveyed value in their brand through high quality landscape, street furniture and signage. We were awarded a design and construction project with Exhale Group to enhance the brand of Seri Alam, using a creative landscape palette and bold signage emphasizing its wealth of local educational institutions.
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Seri Alam encompasses 15 square kilometre of residential, commercial and institutional development. The new Master Plan takes a systems approach. The landscape design includes two layers of intervention, first a system of green streets and urban parks and second a new system of recreational trails for people and green corridors along the existing rivers for wildlife. The green streets were divided into zones, each with a varied colour palette of landscaping.
Nodes within these zones provide important points of rest, access and way finding signage. Public art at critical nodes helps create "Facebookable" moments within the district. Like the Legomen mural in Johor Bahru, this art would require travel to a particular spot to get the full message. These trompe l'oeil pieces create destinations, distinguish districts, and encourage the security of more “feet on the street”. The first installation is an entrance sign to the district, comprised of series of coloured angled fins that shift to spell "Seri Alam". Project design competed with EXHALE Group and Highland Landscapes. (Project description by Carol-Anne Coulter)
Nodes within these zones provide important points of rest, access and way finding signage. Public art at critical nodes helps create "Facebookable" moments within the district. Like the Legomen mural in Johor Bahru, this art would require travel to a particular spot to get the full message. These trompe l'oeil pieces create destinations, distinguish districts, and encourage the security of more “feet on the street”. The first installation is an entrance sign to the district, comprised of series of coloured angled fins that shift to spell "Seri Alam". Project design competed with EXHALE Group and Highland Landscapes. (Project description by Carol-Anne Coulter)
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Taking a cue from Carl Skelton's "Still life" art installation on the trans Canada highway by the Toronto International Airport, we developed an "place branding" entrance sign to the Seri Alam development in the form of a three dimensional trompe l'oeil. The colours of the sign matched the colours of the directional markers and street furniture along the roadways.
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Facts
Company Research
Background Photo
Puteri Harbour, Iskandar
