Seoul City’s new slogan, Seoul My Soul

Seoul's new brand slogan to replace "I·SEOUL·YOU" has been confirmed as "Seoul, my soul." The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on Friday that "Seoul, my soul" (63.1%) was chosen over "Seoul for you" (36.9%) as the new brand slogan through a final vote of public preference.

The vote was conducted from February 15 to March 16, with a total of 260,413 people participating.

"Seoul, my soul" is inspired by the similarity in pronunciation between "soul" and "Seoul" and contains the meaning of "a city that can fill your soul."

The city government plans to announce the final form of the brand after a subsequent design process.

To introduce the confirmed slogan to citizens, "Seoul, my soul" will be presented as the final program of the "2023 Han River Light Festival" (drone light show) at the riverside stage of Ttukseom Han River Park on Apr. 29.

The city of Seoul has been working on developing a new brand slogan to replace "I·SEOUL·YOU," which has been used since the tenure of former Mayor Park Won-soon in 2015, as it was deemed to have vague meaning and weak communication power since August of last year.

After a public contest and a preliminary survey of 2,000 people from Korea and abroad, four final candidates were selected and then a vote of public preference was held. The city government also removed the I·SEOUL·YOU artwork from Seoul Plaza and other areas in accordance with the selection of a new brand.

Write to Hay-Youn Kim at haykim@hankyung.com