The news that the Mayor of London has appointed Wally Ollins’ brand consultancy Saffron to create a visual identity for London at a cost of £500,000, has prompted the same predictable press reaction we get every time a design project is reported: “What half a million pounds for a logo?”

Yes that’s right. Cash-strapped City Hall with its legions of procurement professionals has paid some bloke in thick glasses half a mill for a bit of colouring in.

The implication is of course that Saffron (and by extension the entire design industry) are thieves and con men who will happily part their gullible clients from a small fortune. In return they get doodles a four year old might not be proud of.

I’m not sure if it’s wilful ignorance on the part of the media or just that our industry hasn’t explained itself better, but I feel the overpowering need to set the record straight.

I haven’t worked on the London branding project, so I don’t know the precise costs. But lets look more closely at what City Hall might get for its half million.

From my own experience working on the rebranding of the Museum of London, I know that a major issue facing anyone involved with branding London is its extraordinary diversity. That’s what the London 2012 brand was about, that’s what our Museum of London work is about. And that’s what City Hall’s brand London will be about.

That makes the initial research stage particularly expensive. Saffron will have to gather the opinions and attitudes of a huge number of stakeholders to find out what London means to them. They’ll have to consult politicians, business people, Londoners of all races, classes and hues, opinion formers, foreigners and tourists -to name but a few.