Why Cities Must Prioritize Design

Design is a big word.

But it’s often misunderstood—flattened into visuals, aesthetics, or something applied at the end of a project once the “real work” is done. In civic and public-sector environments, especially, design is treated as decoration rather than a key part of city infrastructure.

But design, at its core, is something much more fundamental.

Design is refinement with intention. It is the act of analyzing systems, ideas, experiences, and environments—and shaping them to better serve people.

“People tend to sit most where there are places to sit.” 

– William Whyte

Whyte was studying physical urban space—plazas, sidewalks, benches. His insight was about human behavior in built environments: create the right conditions, and people will use them. Fail to create those conditions, and no amount of encouragement will compensate.

But the principle extends far beyond any single bench. It applies to architecture and urban planning—and equally to digital services and websites, to wayfinding and signage, to communications and branding. It even applies to the words institutions choose when speaking to their communities.
Design cannot be seen as a separate addition to the plan. It is integral to whether the plan succeeds at all.
When these elements work together, they create clarity, trust, and cohesion. When they don’t, the opposite happens: confusion, friction, and disengagement.

That’s the impact of design.

As cities face increasing complexity—from technological disruption to political polarization—design is no longer optional infrastructure.

It is foundational.

Why Design in Cities Matters

The simplest reason cities must prioritize design is also the most important:
People deserve it.

Taxpayers spend the majority of their lives interacting with public systems.

They drive on public roads. They visit parks and libraries. They power their homes with public utilities. They enroll their children in schools and recreation programs. They navigate public websites, forms, and information systems every day.

And yet the experience of interacting with public services often lags far behind what people experience elsewhere.

It’s easier to buy a car online than it is to pay a water bill.
It’s easier to find the trailer for the next movie than it is to find information about water conservation policies in your own community.
It’s easier to register for a private sports league than it is to enroll your child in a city program designed to serve everyone.

These gaps aren’t simply about funding.
They’re about intent.

In the private sector, user experience is treated as a strategy. In the public sector, user experience is often treated as a constraint.
We shouldn’t have confusion and complexity for vital infrastructure, community lifelines, and essential services.

Because experience is not superficial. It’s how systems earn trust—or lose it.

Whyte’s observation about benches still holds. But the bench is no longer just a physical object. People will enroll in programs designed to be found and communicated clearly. They will feel belonging in places designed to welcome them. They will trust institutions—physical or digital—that feel like they were built with them in mind.

If you want people to engage, you have to start by designing something worth engaging with.

Design Is Not Fast—and That’s the Point

One of the biggest challenges in prioritizing design—especially within government—is uncertainty.
Design takes time. Design requires skilled people. Design outcomes don’t always show immediate ROI.
In public institutions shaped by election cycles, procurement rules, and budget scrutiny, long-term investments can be difficult to justify.

But history shows us something important:
Nothing truly meaningful in design happens quickly.

When New York City’s subway map was redesigned in the 1970s, the shift from a geographically accurate map to a schematic, transit-oriented diagram was met with real resistance. The old map felt familiar—it looked like the city. The new one felt abstract, even clinical. But as riders used it, something changed. It was simply easier to navigate. The design had prioritized usefulness over comfort, function over familiarity. Over time, people came to prefer it. Today it’s considered a landmark of information design. That long arc—resistance, then acceptance, then appreciation—is the norm in civic design, not the exception.

Over time, thoughtful systems reduce confusion, increase participation, and build trust between institutions and the people they serve.

In civic environments—where decisions affect millions of residents and last for decades—that compounding effect matters immensely.

Design as Investment: Human Profit vs Net Profit

This is another important distinction to make when discussing design investment.

There is nothing wrong with net profit. It fuels innovation, sustains organizations, and enables growth. Pastilla itself is a for-profit agency.
But the work we do in the civic space is motivated by something different:
human profit.

Human profit is the return on clarity. On dignity. On access. On trust. On experiences that feel considered and enjoyed rather than tolerated.
Designing at a high level is not cheap. It requires time, expertise, research, iteration, and collaboration.
But the value it produces is often partially quantitative and largely qualitative.

It shows up in participation rates, but also in civic pride. It appears in operational efficiency, but also in confidence and belonging.

The compound value of thoughtful civic design is difficult to measure in spreadsheets, but easy to recognize in thriving communities.

Why Civic Design Is Hard

High-quality design does not come naturally to government systems—and that’s not a criticism.
Many civic leaders come from backgrounds in policy, education, administration, or operations. Their role is stewardship and accountability, not branding or service design.

This means designers working in civic spaces must do more than create beautiful work.

They must:

• build trust with stakeholders
• communicate ideas across disciplines
• navigate layered approval structures
• advocate for long-term thinking
• translate complexity into clarity

Civic design is slower. It’s more collaborative. And when it fails, the consequences are public.
But when it succeeds, the impact can be profound.

How Cities Can Improve Design in Public Systems

Cities that have successfully improved civic design share several common strategies.

1. Embed Designers Inside Government

Cities like New York, Boston, and Helsinki have invested in internal innovation and design teams that work across departments.

The Boston Office of New Urban Mechanics experiments with new ways to improve city services through design and technology.
Read more: boston.gov/departments/new-urban-mechanics

New York City has implemented service design initiatives through multiple innovation programs focused on improving citizen experience.
Example: design.cityofnewyork.us

Meanwhile, Helsinki became one of the first cities to formally embed design into government leadership by appointing design leaders to rethink services from the citizen perspective.
Overview: hel.fi/en/decision-making/design-approach

These teams succeed because they treat design not as a project deliverable, but as a problem-solving discipline embedded within government operations.

2. Adopt Human-Centered Service Design

One of the most successful examples of civic design is the UK Government Digital Service, which transformed hundreds of fragmented government websites into a unified platform: GOV.UK.

The result was dramatically improved usability and significant operational savings.
Example: gov.uk/service-manual

The lesson is simple: designing around human needs rather than institutional structure dramatically improves public systems.

3. Create Clear Civic Identity and Communication Systems

Cities that invest in cohesive identity systems and communication frameworks improve public understanding and civic pride.

Urban wayfinding systems like Bristol Legible City demonstrate how design can improve navigation and strengthen a city’s identity simultaneously.
Example: bristollegiblecity.info

Design doesn’t just make cities look better. It helps people understand where they are and how their city works.

Case Study: Sacramento Public Library

One example of civic design improving community engagement is the Sacramento Public Library rebrand, which Pastilla led.

Sacramento Public Library serves more than one million residents across 28 branches. The goal wasn’t simply to design a logo—it was to unify an entire system and reflect the library’s evolving role as a hub of discovery, learning, and connection.

This is where many civic design projects fall short: they begin with the deliverable instead of the question. What does this institution actually mean to people? What role does it play in their lives that they might not be able to fully articulate?

To answer that, the process began with listening. Community sessions with patrons, staff, parents, students, and veterans surfaced something that went beyond the functional. The library wasn’t just a place to borrow things. It was a place where something happened to people—where curiosity got sparked, where access became real, where connection formed across the kinds of distances that usually keep communities apart.

That’s the insight that drove every decision: the library isn’t a place that stores knowledge. It’s a place that sparks it.

From there, the design approach followed a principle that runs counter to how a lot of civic branding gets made. The obvious route would have been books—a graphic stack of volumes, an open page, a reading lamp. Familiar, safe, immediately legible. And exactly the kind of visual shorthand that adds nothing, because it already says what people already know.

Instead, the question became: how do you represent what a library actually is for people? Not the object, but the experience. The network of connections, pathways, and moments of discovery that the institution creates across an entire city.

The library system—with its 28 branches—isn’t really a collection of individual locations. The spaces themselves aren’t the point. What matters is the network: how those libraries function as a connected, living system for the city. A hub. A shared resource that creates access, connection, and meaning at a scale that no single branch can achieve alone.

The resulting identity reflects that thinking. The visual system is built around motion and possibility—forms that suggest exploration, growth, and connection rather than cataloging or containment. The mark invites a small moment of curiosity, where the shape isn’t immediately resolved. That pause mirrors the experience the library itself offers: the sense that something worth discovering is just ahead.

The color system carries the same rigor. Each color is rooted in something specific to Sacramento—the region’s geography, its seasons, its landscape. That foundation isn’t immediately obvious, but it’s felt. And when people ask why, there’s a real answer. Substance behind every decision.

People don’t always articulate what they need from a brand. But they recognize it when they experience it. If the work is done well, they don’t question it—they connect with it.

But what made the project succeed wasn’t the visual language alone. It was the system built around it: templates, signage standards, accessibility guidelines, and flexible tools that give all 28 branches the ability to express the brand consistently while still reflecting their own communities.

That’s the human-centered design principle in practice. The work was never about a logo. It was about building infrastructure that lets an institution communicate with clarity and intention—across every touchpoint, at every scale—in a way that earns trust over time.

The result is a library system that feels unified, vibrant, and unmistakably connected to the people it serves.

Case Study: City of Corona

In 2022, Pastilla partnered with the City of Corona to modernize the city’s brand and align it with a new strategic vision for growth.

Rather than simply redesigning the city’s seal, the project began with extensive community engagement—gathering insights from more than 2,200 employees and residents.

The resulting identity centers around the message “You Belong Here.”

The visual system incorporates Corona’s historic town circle, crown symbolism, and surrounding mountains—balancing heritage with a modern civic voice.

The refreshed brand has helped unify communications across city departments and strengthen civic pride within the community.

Since launch, the project has expanded into additional collaborations, including downtown branding and visual systems for the city’s police and fire departments.

The result is a cohesive civic identity that reflects both Corona’s history and its future.

Design Has One Agenda: Clarity

In today’s political and cultural environment, clarity has become more important than ever.

Cities operate in an era of fragmented attention, misinformation, and heightened sensitivity.

Design cannot eliminate complexity, but it can help people navigate it.

Design’s only agenda is clarity.

Clarity of intent. Clarity of communication. Clarity of experience.

When done well, design cuts through noise without manipulation. It creates understanding without forcing ideology.

Beauty, balance, and resonance follow naturally from that clarity.

A Call to Cities—and Designers

Cities should prioritize design not because it’s fashionable, but because it’s responsible.
Design reduces friction. Design saves time. Design builds trust. Design communicates care.

For designers, especially those working primarily in the private sector, the civic space offers something increasingly rare:
the opportunity to create meaning at scale.

Public-sector design is complex and humbling work. It requires patience, empathy, and collaboration.
But it also offers the chance to shape systems that touch millions of lives, often in the moments that matter most.

As cities continue to evolve, the lesson is becoming clear:
The cities that invest in thoughtful design will be more resilient, more trusted, and more humane.

And the ones that don’t will feel the difference—slowly, quietly, and everywhere.