Product category:
Outdoor and ambient
News Release from: Creative Concern
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 19 September 2007
Creative Concern creates North-West
identity
North-West communications agency Creative Concern has completed a new brand for Pennine Lancashire, working with design guru Peter Saville and Livesey Wilson Associates.
The brand has been commissioned by Elevate, Pennine Lancashire's Housing Market Renewal pathfinder, and will be used both as a 'flag' under which regeneration projects will be taken forward and as a more conventional destination brand for the area Launched in the hills above Blackburn, the new brand is made up of a new graphic device called 'Contour' and a type treatment for 'Pennine Lancashire' that will be used by a host of partners across the areas of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 12 Sep 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The project was first conceived in the 2005 report 'Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire' which was written by Anthony H Wilson and his partner Yvette Livesey, both of whom played a central part in the creation of the new 'Contour' brand.
Speaking at the launch, Creative Concern Chief Executive Steve Connor said: "A place brand has to represent the truth of environmental and social connections that the individual will make when there.
"Our new brand for Elevate and the partners across Pennine Lancashire has primarily been designed to inspire, engage and empower the people of the area to continue their work towards an economic and social renaissance.
"It is as much about pride as it is tourism".
Elevate Chief Executive Max Steinberg said: "There are some amazing projects emerging as part of the Pennine Lancashire initiative, including a Fashion Tower, now known as 'Weave' that is being developed by Ralph Radill.
"This new and inspiring brand will be the flag we fly over those projects; it will lead our partners and our communities towards the renaissance described by Anthony Wilson and Yvette Livesey in Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire".
Max Steinberg also paid tribute to Anthony H Wilson: "Today was also a celebration of what is just a small part of Anthony's amazing legacy; the Weave project and the new brand were initiatives that he felt enormously passionate about and that he gave a huge amount of support and inspiration to.
"The wider Pennine Lancashire project will forever be a tribute and testament to his vision".
The new brand for Pennine Lancashire has been created by the design team at Creative Concern, a Manchester-based multidisciplinary communications agency that specialises in sustainable development, regeneration, culture and the knowledge economy.
The brand development process was directed by Peter Saville, the international designer and brand consultant and Anthony Wilson and Yvette Livesey were key consultees and advisors.
In June 2005 Wilson and Livesey published their 'Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire' report for Elevate, outlining a series of 'consummations devoutly to be wished'.
Their aspirations for a new, regenerated East Lancashire included a Fashion Tower, an Adrenaline Gateway, Chic Sheds, a new wave of public spaces conceived by international architects and urbanists and the new brand for what they had termed 'Pennine Lancashire'.
The graphic device conceived by Creative Concern is called 'Contour', a panoramic fusion of multicoloured contour lines that does more than just replay the landscape of the Pennines that represents such an important framing element for communities across Rossendale, Burnley or Blackburn.
It also suggests other important dimensions of Pennine Lancashire such as weaving, canals and rooftops.
The lines of Contour are not static.
They form a range of shapes to become suggestive of an urban landscape, for example, or of a lowland area bounded by canals or waterways.
The ribbon-like shape of the graphic helps to inform its deployment and suggests a variety of uses from panoramic boundary signs to illuminated fascias, gatefolded print and 16:9 screenshots.
The new Pennine Lancashire brand also includes a type treatment based on Res Publica Medium, a face that was selected as a modern take on the traditional serif and that would prove bold, robust and readable when used across a very wide variety of environments.
It also provides a strong and solid anchor point for the more lyrical and dextrous graphic element of the brand.
The unveiling of Pennine Lancashire brand took place at Stanley House, Mellor, near Blackburn, Lancashire on Monday 17 September, 2007 and included the unveiling of plans for 'Weave', an iconic multi-use redevelopment of a historic mill in the Weavers' Triangle, Burnley.
There was also an update on other key projects such as Chic Sheds, Sound Investments and Pennine Lancashire Squared.
Present at the launch were Yvette Livesey, Peter Saville, Max Steinberg and David Taylor of Elevate, Ralph Ardill of the Brand Experience Consultancy and Steve Connor of Creative Concern.
The new brand for Pennine Lancashire will have three key areas of use.
The first use of the brand will be a as a 'flag under which we rally' and builds on the words of Livesey Wilson Associates who wrote that "the disparate elements of East Lancashire need a flag to march behind, a unifying symbol to lead them to top of the mountain known as 'successful regeneration'.
The second use of the brand will be as a more traditional 'destination' brand for promotions that will attract visitors or investors to the area or that will mark out your entry into, or experience of, Pennine Lancashire.
Walking or cycling guides, targeted promotion at gateways, boundary markers or themed events are all good examples of where the use of the Pennine Lancashire brand will be considered.
Here the Pennine Lancashire brand has been designed to consciously connect to a 'drivetime' audience that is aspirational, creative and upmarket; the 'creative class' set out in the original Livesey Wilson report in 2005.
It speaks to professionals in Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Leeds and has the potential to unlock a day visitor market that could in time translate into new residents, new business start-ups and new investments in the area.
The third and final use will be as an endorsement or 'kite mark' for other projects denoting their shared lineage and set of aspirations.
In 2005, Elevate (Pennine Lancashire's Housing Market Renewal pathfinder) engaged Livesey Wilson Associates to develop a vision for the social and economic regeneration of the sub-region.
Anthony Wilson and Yvette Livesey's subsequent report, "Dreaming of Pennine Lancashire", identified a number of "Big Ideas" including the development of a brand for Pennine Lancashire.
Over time this will become a unifying brand that will raise the profile of Pennine Lancashire and promote the area to businesses and individuals.
Creative Concern is a multidisciplinary creative agency that specialises in environmental issues, regeneration, sustainability and culture.
It boasts an emerging portfolio of place brands including Wirral Peninsula, Sefton's Natural Coast and Mersey Waterfront.
It has also recently managed the 'Original Modern' brand campaign for Manchester with Peter Saville and the City's Marketing Partnership.
It has created a range of other brands for its client base including campaign brands such as 'Love Your Bike' or 'Manchester is my Planet' and corporate brands for the UK Forum for Environmental Industries, Recycling Action Yorkshire and Cityco (formerly the Manchester City Centre Management Company).
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