A Bridge Too Long

A city branding project came in, and li9ht’s creative team immediately worked on it without despair, because we all fancy the city. It was for Surabaya, the capital of the East Java province in Indonesia, and the republic’s second largest city. Surabaya is an all-you-can-see and all-you-can-get place, also the largest “open air museum in the world” for the municipal conservation efforts implemented on the city’s cultural heritages. But next to all these, the city is currently well known for its iconic landmarks, such as the 30.6-meter high Jalesveva Jayamahe (Sanskrit for “at sea we are triumphant”) monument in the naval base at Ujung pier and the 5,438 meters long Suramadu Bridge, the latter being the most popular as it is the longest bridge in Indonesia.

We decided on the bridge to become the key visual identity, as it is the most contemporary, beside the fact that people outside the city are mostly familiar with it. The bridge happens to have two pylons (towers) from which cables support the bridge deck. These pylons have the form of the letter “A”, which is the last letter on the second and the fourth syllable of the word “SURABAYA”. We simply put the words “SUR” and “BAY” with the As being the A-formed pylons.

CLIENT: Surabaya Municipal Government

PROJECT: City Branding

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Anto Dwiastoro