I’ve came up with 3 different angles on how to represent Balikpapan as a city, or to give it a new image/identity. The 3 rough ideas that I’ve came up with (after brainstorming and researches) are Balikpapan as a tourist city, as “the 2nd Jakarta”, or as an industrial city (which it is already known for, but I’d like to focus on how it isn’t simply a city wealth in natural resources).
So far I’m most inclined to go on with the “2nd Jakarta” concept because it is the one that makes the most sense to me, based on my research and personal analysis on the city’s economical and geographical factor, as well as the sustainability of it and the extra values that the city has got to offer, which no other metropolitan cities can compete with (so far it is the abundance of wildlife, relaxation by the beach, that the city is as pleasant as it is developed).
I’d like to ask my peers on these 3 different re-branding ideas and see which one they would like the best, so I created a short introductory essay about Balikpapan which would equip my peers with the general knowledge of the city to have a fact-based opinion on the three ideas that I’m going to present to them.
Balikpapan is a seaport city located in East Borneo. Populated by 701.066 people in total, it is the second largest city in East Borneo and one of the fastest developing city in Indonesia. Often dubbed as “Singapura nya Indonesia”, Balikpapan far surpasses other cities in the nation in terms of orderliness and cleanliness. Long before its rise as a developing city, it has always been a site of oil drilling and refinery – which contributed significantly to the city’s wealth and eventual development. Currently, it houses many multinational companies such as ChevronTexaco (US), Pertamina (Indonesia), Schlumberger (France), Thiess (Australia), Total S.A. (France) and Weatherford International (US). The geographic factor allows trade to be done easily through Balikpapan, as it stretches along the coast. Naturally, Balikpapan has a long stretch of beach and has several beach resorts built for touristing and relaxation purposes. Not only that, it also thrives in wildlife attraction, with its sunbear sanctuary, crocodile breeding park and orang utan conservatory which cannot be found easily in other places in the nation. Despite its higher living cost compared to others, income received by workers there is high enough to adequately support the Balikpapan lifestyle. As it develops, Balikpapan is supported with the rise of shopping centres, even though they’re still sparse and lackluster in comparison to the more developed cities in Indonesia such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung.
With this general knowledge of Balikpapan, which idea do you think would be the best in re-introducing / re-branding Balikpapan? Why, in your opinion, and the angle of your study/expertise from which you view the case in?
A) Tourist city
Balikpapan has all the potentials to be a hot tourist destination for people who are looking for some relaxation by the beach, or wildlife adventure in the forest. The city has significant advancement on tourist attraction, particulary on the beach resorts and water park. It offers a peaceful holiday in the nature for locals or international tourists who are seeking for an escape from the hectic routine of the metropolitan city.
B) The “2nd Jakarta”
Having won the Most Livable City (national) award in 2013, Balikpapan is by far a suitable city for people from the metropolitans to live in / migrate to. It offers not only a stable, clean and orderly environment, but also job opportunities in the industrial sector and trade. The town planning is a lot more ordered than Jakarta, climate is stable and the environment is much greener and less hectic than the demanding capital city. Even though it might still lack the metropolitan glam, it supports sustainable living and there are many recreational and relaxation spots that stressed out workers in Balikpapan can seek solace in. By encouraging people to migrate to Balikpapan, it would also reduce overpopulation in Jakarta – an ever-growing problem of which effect is getting worser day by day.
C) Industrial cityKnown an acclaimed of the Oil and Gas town of Indonesia, Balikpapan lives up to its reputation. Located strategically along the coast, it has two ports and each are equally busy – loading with passengers and cargos everyday. Balikpapan thrives in the oil, gas and mining sector, but being rich in those resources isn’t the only reason why they’re successful. Their trade is supported by the city’s well-built infrastructure and business centers, and constant development being done to cope with the influx of international trades. It is a city which is much more than simply having something to harvest upon.
(Sketches, brainstorm and SWOT analysis to be inserted)
Responses from friends from various field of studies regarding the city re-branding idea:
Michelle, International Business 3rd year student (Resides in Melbourne, Australia)
I would think idea B – the “2nd Jakarta” as the best option, because:
– it has a “stable clean environment”. This will attract those who are worried about Jakarta’s environment, as it is very polluted.
– it received the “most livable city (national) award” in 2013
– a more orderly and less hectic city will lead to less stress and traffic jams for those working in the city, and will also attract those who have initially been hesitant to move to Jakarta due to the stress and traffic jams.
– it will reduce overpopulation in Jakarta itself, and (in the long run) reduce pollution and the sheer volume of vehicles in Jakarta
– Balikpapan supports sustainable living, something that is required in this day and age due to dwindling natural resources
– there are “many recreational and relaxation spots to seek solace in” for workers living and working in the city
Noa, Literature and Humanity Studies, class of 2014 (Resides in Surabaya, Indonesia)
I think i’ll go with B, since the distribution of people in Indonesia doesn’t seem to be well balanced and the majority of people focus java for job opportunity
Nadia, Masters in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience (Resides in Frankfurt, Germany)
I’d choose B. Indonesia needs new capital and Balikpapan has strategic position. There are many other places which could serve as tourist destination but not many could serve as a metropol
Alisha, Student at Faculty of Psychology Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
(Transcription of a telephone response)
Balikpapan has always been known (lebih berkonotasi ke arah) industrial. The people are fastidious and very industrious (“nguli”) and the city is known to be very productive in mining, gas, etc. To really find out about which angle to re-brand Balikpapan in, data of the city needs to be collected – firstly on its economy, second about its lifestyle and third the natural recreation that the city has. From these three point of views, an adjective (or multiple) can be concluded for Balikpapan. For example, Bandung has just been re-branded and it is known as “kota kreatif”, which is really prominent lately (with its emerging design firms). It is also helpful to know about the reason that the city is most often visited for. What’s the attractive side about the city? And if Balikpapan has been awarded the “most livable city” in 2013, how “livable” is it really? Why is it livable, how relative it is in opinion of the wide public? What factor contributes to Balikpapan’s livability? Jakarta, a city which would be considered overpopulated which traffic everyday and periodic flooding problems is still livable to many people – the fact that it is still populated proves this – for various reasons (job, education, lifestyle that it offers). In my opinion, if you have collected data on Balikpapan’s economy, lifestyle and natural recreation, you’ll be able to find out what city Balikpapan is and from there you can brand the city.
29/07/2016
After QC-ing and showing my array of doodles of different kinds of logos, Ms Claudia thinks that the ones that look like a silhouette (buildings/city silhouette turned to geometric letters) is a good idea to start on and that I should focus on developing those kind of logos. I’ve decided on developing the 2nd idea which is re-branding Balikpapan as capital-city worthy. Not too surprisingly, I stumble upon blog posts that also agree on Balikpapan’s potential as (East Borneo’s) capital city.
I’m still working on the collage, and I struggle to find more than 20 typefaces. I was suggested the font “Nevis”, a mixture of some of the bolder and sharp edged typefaces that I currently have in my collage.
I think it’d be great if I can find items found in Balikpapan and paste them on my collage, but I still have yet to find them. Other than showing scenery of Balikpapan, I’d like to also add some feeling, atmosphere and something local about the city into the moodboard, hence these images: the feet against water on the sand, texture & color of sea jewel, strong colors reflected onto the water.
This is the current moodboard for the “2nd Jakarta” idea which is still very weak. There is an image of a family that I included there to get the “pleasant living” atmosphere, but the subject of the photo suggests tourism more. I’m very fascinated by the strong colors of the construction helmet; I think that the bright colors would suit the energized, hard working and spirit of Balikpapan. Blue also represents trustworthiness, stability (stable living, you-can-trust-your-living-in-Balikpapan), as well as the sea. Yellow represents joy, happiness (a happy living, which suggests high living standard) as well as oil and mining that Balikpapan is rich in. I think that the colors blue and yellow are appropriate as Balikpapan’s identity, but I don’t want to exclude the natural riches that Balikpapan has yet, so I include a moss / forest green color and I’d try to see if I can put them together. (QC suggestion: Avoid the pastel blue colors, they don’t suit Balikpapan’s spirit and be careful with putting the green and blue together.)
musings of the mind 
