Invercargill buys into new brand

Invercargill’s new brand launch has got off to a strong start, if merchandising sales are anything to go by.

The Invercargill City Council is scrambling to keep up with demand for new branded products, with more interest than initially expected.

Council city centre co-ordinator Kari Graber she was ‘‘thrilled’’ with the positive reaction so far, with the amount of orders for merchandise through the new invercargillnz.com website being much higher than expected.

‘‘We’ve had 25 online sales so far [as of Friday morning], a few in Invercargill but mostly from Auckland, Wellington and other smaller cities.

‘‘I would say it’s exceeded my expectations, I thought we were onto a good thing, but you don’t really know how it’s going to go.until it comes out.’’

Retailers who already have some of the merchandise for sale are E Hayes & Sons, Toi Toi Maori Gift Shop, Invercargill Airport, and Southland Museum & Art Gallery.

To meet the expected demand, Graber said she was working to find a local business that could quickly make up to 500 T-shirts with the new branding on them.

E Hayes & Sons operations manager Debbie Hodges said they were getting ‘‘a lot of interest’’ from the community to the products on sale.

‘‘We’re right behind it. For years we can talk and talk and talk about what we need to do and nothing happens. We’re actually seeing something happen from this, which is really good.’’

While demand has been strong, the new brand has not been without some criticism.

Invercargill architect Bob Simpson said the vertical arrangement of the new logo was creating headlines, but not for the right reasons.

‘‘They’ve certainly got coverage, but it’s been laughing stock coverage. A good sign is a good sign, but I don’t believe that this is.

‘‘People are used to reading things horizontally, like the logo for Dunedin, which is a lot more simple.’’

Brand designer Tim Christie said there had also been requests for Invercargill earrings, which had been displayed in some of the materials for the brand launch last week.

‘‘That was just a part of the concept art to display the breadth of the brand, as a bit of a fun visual – but there’s people actually genuinely wanting Invercargill earrings now.

‘‘City branding is notoriously difficult and can be mocked mercilessly if they don’t quite hit the spot, so I think we’ve done pretty well really.

‘‘Obviously with anything like this you’re going to see some critique, but overall I’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback.’’