Ci ty Mascot as A Supporting Force in City Imaging

Abstract

The discourse about mascot in Indonesia nowadays starts emerging on the discussion among visual commu-nication designer community as well as creative industry practicioners. Moreover since its existence is not only applied onsport event, but also expands to various field, whether as business promotion, imaging efforts, to campaign forms. One ofthe interesting discourses is that for the first time mascot is inaugurated by city government as a part of identity of a city inIndonesia, namely Malang, in an effort to promote the city's tourism and as a differentiate feature with other cities. Thisadaptation refers to the cities in Japan which had previously use the power of mascot as a supporting power in developingits potential, like Perfecture Kumamoto with its mascot, Kumamon. Then how does mascot become the ambassador of acity's image related with culture, resources, as well as infrastructure facility of a city? The goal of this research is to givesufficient understanding about city mascot existence while showing its importance for visual communication desainers andcreative industry practitioners in creating a work. While the approach used in this research is through social research, con-sidering how close the topic discussed with local tradition and culture. The approach was chosen to find mascot's position-ing in its relation with city image potential, thus the benefit of its use for local government can be seen. The study was do nein Malang, Surabaya, and Kumamoto Perfecture through deep direct observation, interview, as well as literature research.The benefit of learning the process of this research result is hoped to be used as a reference and model in the application ofmascot contest and other intellectual property in the future. Also to strengthen the base in mascot creation which indeedshould be able to accomodate what it represents.