When Letters Become Landmarks

Amsterdam’s 2005 ‘I amsterdam’ installation, often cited as the earliest widely recognized example of the modern city‑name wordmark (photo by Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons).

 
Cities around the world have embraced a simple, highly legible device: spelling out their names in large, sculptural letters. These wordmarks have become fixtures of contemporary urban branding—instantly recognizable, endlessly photographed, and often adopted as informal gathering points. I’ve encountered them in places as different as Nanaimo and Ottawa, each using typography to project identity in a direct, almost cheerful way.
 
Amsterdam’s “I amsterdam” installation, introduced in 2005, is generally regarded as the earliest widely recognized example of the contemporary city-name wordmark. Its placement in front of the Rijksmuseum helped propel the device into global visibility, and many of the installations that followed, from Toronto to Buenos Aires, trace their lineage, implicitly or explicitly, to the Amsterdam wordmark.(1)
 
Notably, many of this country’s most symbolically loaded cities—New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia—have never adopted large civic wordmarks, relying instead on existing architectural icons to carry their identity. By contrast, some cities have experimented with the typology in design-forward ways. Vancouver, Canada, introduced temporary and illuminated “VANCOUVER” installations that proved popular enough to prompt council approval for a permanent waterfront version.(2) That uneven adoption underscores that a wordmark is never a neutral gesture; it reflects a city’s comfort with overt branding and its appetite for a certain kind of civic expression.

Nanaimo, British Columbia wordmark (my photo).

 
Their appeal is obvious. A city-name wordmark is participatory, democratic, and immediately understood. It offers a moment of civic pride and a ready-made backdrop for visitors. But the very qualities that make these installations successful have also made them ubiquitous. They risk becoming a global shorthand for Instagram bait: instantly photogenic, instantly shareable, and instantly interchangeable.
 
Despite their ubiquity, there’s surprisingly little critical writing about these installations as a global phenomenon. Most commentary focuses on individual signs or on municipal branding more broadly, but few observers have examined the wordmark itself as an urban placemaker, with respect to its appeal, its limitations, or its implications for civic space. That gap makes me curious about how a city like Eugene might interpret the device, and whether it can be adapted in a way that feels authentic rather than imitative.
 
I argued last year that the North Butterfly Lot needs a gesture capable of reinforcing the Park Blocks’ spatial logic, one that contributes to their civic presence. Since then, the City of Eugene selected Paradigm Properties through a public RFP process to undertake the parcel’s redevelopment. The design team, led by Dustrud Architecture (with Dougherty Landscape Architects and Michael Fifield contributing urban design guidance) has initiated design work. I’ve discussed the developing scheme with both, as well as participated in Mayor Kaarin Knudson’s design review group for the project. The City’s process to date has emphasized transparency and public engagement rather than imposing any architectural direction upon Paradigm, especially with respect to questions of scale, expression, or the appropriateness of strongly iconic gestures.
 
It’s worth remembering that the North Butterfly Lot has never properly functioned as a spatial terminus for the Park Blocks. Earlier civic buildings, now razed, primarily fronted on 8th Avenue, leaving the northern quarter block as an unresolved edge in the figure-ground. The site isn’t missing something it once had; it simply never received a gesture that acknowledges its role as the Park Blocks’ northern threshold.

 

"OTTAWA" sign in the city's ByWard Market District (my photo).

That brings me back to those city-name installations. I’m wary of their ubiquity. I’m wary of their tendency toward cliché. And yet, I find myself wondering whether the underlying idea—typography as spatial marker, a wordmark as civic datum—might hold potential here if approached with restraint and specificity. Not a photo prop, not a branding exercise, but a modest, materially grounded gesture that participates in the Park Blocks’ geometry and registers at pedestrian scale.(3)
 
Eugene doesn’t need a copy of what other cities have done. But it might benefit from a contemporary civic wordmark, or some related typographic gesture, if it can be conceived as an architectural element rather than a marketing device. Something that completes the Park Blocks’ sequence, acknowledges the city’s identity without shouting it, and feels inevitable rather than imported.
 
I’m not certain what that gesture should be. But I’m increasingly convinced that the question is worth asking. If Eugene can reinterpret the global wordmark phenomenon in a way that aligns with its modest, grounded, and quietly expressive temperament, then perhaps even this ubiquitous device could find a meaningful place at the northern edge of the Park Blocks.

 
(1)  The City of Amsterdam ultimately removed the original installation from the Museumplein in 2018 amid concerns about overtourism, a reminder that even the typology’s OG has grappled with the unintended consequences of its own success.
 
(2)  The City of Vancouver has leaned into temporary and illuminated "VANCOUVER" signs (seasonal installations near Canada Place since 2023–2024), which proved hugely popular and led to council approval in 2025 for a permanent, illuminated large-letter sign on the waterfront promenade, timed for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It's positioned as a public art/placemaking piece with tourist appeal, backed by tourism partners, and will incorporate First Nations design input. 

     

     (3)  This idea is not my own: In a March 27, 2025 letter to the Eugene Weekly, William Sullivan called for a park-focused design competition, suggesting features that include a giant “EUGENE” sculpture.