What's in a Civic Brand?

Author Ryan Short's 2025 The Civic Brand: The Power & Responsibility of Place caught our attention for a singular reason. One of the books many underlying themes is to choose substance over shallow 'solutions'. Why do we hang new banners downtown every 5 years when we make no substantive investments in small business to fill those empty storefronts? Why do we collect data points to defend projects rather than define them? Ryan talks about taking action to discover the real issues at play, then solving the problems. Without this, do you have a civic brand? Here, at the 'Are We Here Yet?' Podcast and SMG we couldn't agree more. Is our community's brand a swift-looking logo and color swatch and no more? Or should we demand more of ourselves? Ryan co-founded his firm Civic Brand with wife Banner Short in 2008. Since then, the couple have assisted communities large and small throughout the country to realize more meaningful civic brands and civic life at the core of those new strategies.