Creating Urban Visual Identity Through Commercial Signage: A Comparative Study of Jakarta and Bandung

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_4How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Commercial Signage; Urban Visual Identity; City Branding

Abstract

In Indonesian cities, commercial signage plays a role beyond information dissemination and it shapes how urban identities are visually constructed. However, signage often remains marginal in urban design policies, seen as a disruptive element rather than a potential tool for city branding and spatial coherence, while it has the potential to be capitalized and gain profit to the city. This paper examines how signage contributes to urban visual identity through a comparative-descriptive study on Jakarta and Bandung. From literature on visual culture, signage regulation, and city branding, the paper reflects on visual conditions in Blok M (Jakarta) and Braga (Bandung), two areas with distinct urban characters. This study highlights its development with comparative-analytical framework for assessing signage governance and practice across these two diverse, rapidly urbanizing contexts in Indonesia. Visual and regulatory analyses reveal the gap of design flexibility and formal guidelines in integrating signage with the city’s visual character, identifying regulatory blind spots where economic pragmatism outweighs aesthetical sensibility. By reframing signage as a strategic urban design asset, this study calls for a more integrated visual governance framework that aligns regulations, aesthetics, and identity in shaping the public realm in Indonesia cities.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Marisa Sugangga
AU  - Angela Upitya Paramitasari
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/13
TI  - Creating Urban Visual Identity Through Commercial Signage: A Comparative Study of Jakarta and Bandung
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Architectural Research and Design (ARDC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 31
EP  - 54
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_4
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_4
ID  - Sugangga2026
ER  -