Book Review: The Civic Brand by Ryan Short

As the name suggests, Book Reviews takes a look at books that have a rural subject, or provides commentary on a subject matter that affects rural communities. This Book Review is written by John C. Shepard (@JohnCShepard), AICP the Vice-Chair of Communications for the American Planning Association’s Small Town and Rural (STaR) Planning Division (@APA_SmallTown). John has his own blog JCShepard(dot)com. It has a host of additional help for rural communities. Check it out!

Things we love we want to protect, but everything changes. We can’t live by exclusion. We have a responsibility to the places we live and the power to make them better.

Ryan Short at CivicBrand is not a planner by training. He’s taken a roundabout journey. He started off doing branding and design work for a general audience. Ryan did have several friends who were architects, planners, engineers—people creating things that would be around in a hundred years. Place impacts people’s health and happiness—things which shape people’s lives. He recognized the power of what they were working on.

Ryan also recognized that he could add value from his experience in community engagement. Not replicating or replacing the typical planning process; but taking it further.

“We seem to lose sight of the people,” Ryan related in a phone conversation on a cold December day from his small town in the mountains of Colorado. In the fall of 2025, Ryan Short published a new book, titled The Civic Brand: The Power & Responsibility of Place.

In four parts, he discusses:

1. The Power of Place
2. Anatomy of a Brand
3. Public Engagement
4. Brand in Action

He writes, “I’m talking about place branding that, when done right, becomes the connective tissue that gives communities a common direction that guides every new policy, project, and decision so that they add up to something bigger.” Sounds like planning to me.

The Strong Towns connection

Charles Marohn, founder of Strong Towns, wrote a foreword from the book. As Ryan worked on more place-based branding, he got to reading the Strong Towns blog—why are cities built like they are? How do they work? After working on some community engagement projects together, Marohn and Short got to talking about how to do things better. “We both think there’s a better way.”

There are people coming at “place” from all different ways. Yet as Charles writes, “This book lays out a compelling argument: that what’s missing from so many of our communities is not funding or planning or even leadership; it’s a shared sense of identity.”

How do we do better at engagement?

I asked him about how we can be better at creating a culture of engagement. He replied, as consultants, we can work more like a trainer—we can jump start process, but the local community need to cultivate the culture.

Local planners can also take this approach, if they are brave. Train your Planning Commissioners and your governing body; reach out to other staff and community volunteers about what it is we all do.

In the middle of the book, Ryan discusses the idea of “the illusion of consensus.” He writes:

“Shifting our focus to consent rather than consensus, can be a simple but impactful way to ensure that people are heard, that concerns are addressed as best as possible, and that even those that may not fully agree—or may be on the losing side of a vote—can still see their voice considered in the ultimate decisions.”

We are constantly working at doing better. As Ryan suggests, it’s like therapy for an entire community. Like therapy, it’s difficult to tell when we’re done.

Be Honest About Where You Are

Self-confidence is huge. There’s a big gap between “we’ll take anything” to “exclusive resort town”. The planning process is really about finding better ways to Be Your Best Self. He writes, “Cities need to be honest about where they are.” As for “The Civic Brand,” branding also needs to be re-branded— it needs to be real as well.

We can also do better with our placemaking. Really, it is a form of engagement, a way of getting people to vote with their feet about a place. It’s also one of those things where we can try one thing, see how it works, then try something else. Incremental improvement in the civic brand.

“With small towns, things don’t have to be these big master plans.” Ryan said as we wrapped up our conversation. “A single coffee shop in a small town can change the identity and vibe… Too often we try to think too much.”

What would he suggest we do about it? “Like Chuck says, do the next small thing. Don’t underestimate small wins.”

Above all, remember to have fun. Sounds like a good idea to me.