With the rapid urbanization, waterfront cities which characterized by their unique natural scenery and rich cultural resources, have become the focus of city branding efforts. However, current brand graphic design for waterfront cities faces challenges such as homogenization and lack of regional characteristics, necessitating theoretical guidance and practical innovation. Against this backdrop, this study leverages media ecology as a theoretical framework, proposing a series of media ecology-based brand graphic design strategies for waterfront cities through literature review and case analysis, and conducting a case study and design practice in Yichang City. To prove the effectiveness of the design and thereby verify the efficacy of authors’ proposed strategies, this study also employed a questionnaire survey method to analyze the communication effect. This study explored the strategies and practices of brand graphic design for waterfront cities from the perspective of media ecology through a combination of theoretical discussion and practical verification. The research findings not only provided valuable references and insights for the branding construction of Yichang and other waterfront cities but also offered new perspectives and directions for research in the field of city brand graphic design.