SYNTAX

Storytowns shed light on Jordanian towns as travel destinations beyond the typical Jordanian tourist sites. The program was designed to empower local communities and support them in the development of their towns as tourism destinations. Diversifying Jordan’s tourism offering, Storytowns is a brand system created to highlight the stories of the towns and its people:  each town has its own story to tell, and each of these stories has many stories hidden within it still, waiting to be told and retold.

The brand’s visual language is made up of different illustrations that represent the many aspects of ours towns; including their culture, heritage, architecture, food, agriculture and history. The photographic style portrays the various experiences people can have in our towns; what they are touching, seeing, eating, smelling and hearing. When the brand’s building blocks are placed in the grid together they tell us different stories.

SYNTAX created the brand system for the Storytowns initiative, targeted at tourism and municipal stakeholders and promoting the idea of town tourism in general. We also created the tourism branding for the first Jordanian town to win the Storytown label, based on its touristic, cultural and municipal assets.

The very first Storytown was As-Salt.  As we were recounting our visits to As-Salt, we realized we had similar recollections, but what most resonated with each of us was quite different; for one of us it was the stories about architecture. For another it was the stories of trading routes, of battles and castles, and of pioneers who went on to define a generation. For yet another, it was Um Mohammad’s story about the three cups of coffee.

As-Salt is the birthplace of much of Jordan’s recent history—As-Salt carries the legacy of being Jordan’s hub of agriculture and trade, of education and politics, of heritage and culture. It’s where our story begins, and we capture this idea with the tagline: “…of dawns and beginnings”.

When a town becomes a Storytown a unique color scheme is given to the brand identity to represent that particular town. For example As-Salt’s dominant colors are inspired by the town’s unique yellow stone and the color of sumac—yet another thing As-Salt is known for. 

As more Jordanian towns are assigned the Storytowns designation, it is envisioned that the modular brand system SYNTAX created is used to brand those towns, introducing new elements that reflect the destination’s identity.