Multifaceted Melbourne

My favorite from this round-up of identity redesigns in 2009, by a pretty astronomical margin, is the city of Melbourne’s:

(Some of the images on that page are broken, weirdly, but there’s still plenty to look at.)

I’m a fan of the “generative identity” idea, which also informs AOL’s redesign (also featured in the round-up)—but I think the Melbourne logo does it better. It seems to achieve both consistency and diversity. And you can imagine writing a computer program to just pump out attractive little M’s! What if every parking ticket in Melbourne looked ever-so-slightly different?

I also really like the use of the M’s geometry as a design element for reports and brochures, too—about halfway down the page.