OUGD603 / Extended Practice - DBA / Capital North: First look.

OUGD603.
DBA / CAPITAL NORTH. 
FIRST LOOK. 

For the DBA / Capital North brief I have chosen to work in a group with Danielle Harrison, Sarah Heal, Daisy Conway and Melissa Hardcastle. I have been planning on doing a collaboration since the beginning of the year with Sarah Heal. I also noticed on the brief that one of the options on the extended list of elements, is the option to create an app, I personally thought that this was one of the better of the 5 extra options, and I know that Danielle has done a lot of app building, so I thought she would be a good person to work with as well. 

We are planning to meet up on thursday to start discussing and brainstorming some ideas together, but I thought before then I would have a first glance at the brief and start looking into location branding. 

Dissecting the brief:



I noticed on the brief that although the North is needing to be empowered globally, and will need to compete on the world stage, in relation to London it is looking not to compete with the capital but be as described its 'brother in arms in the fight for Britain's share of the global economy.'

Taking this information on board I started to think about the branding of european cities, and in particular I began looking at Barcelona. The reason why I think looking at Barcelona could be beneficial is that it is almost a secondary capital of Spain, with a brighter presence than Madrid itself. 

As a place I started looking into all the facets of Barcelona and why it is such a successful city in business, in leisure and in tourism. 

I started to list all of its great attributes, I felt this may help me to understand what brings people and business to certain cities, and therefore help to decode whether the north of England has similar elements that can be celebrated. 

Climate/ weather:

Barcelona for the most part does have a set of seasons. It is sunny and hot in the summer, and colder in the winter months. It attracts tourists looking for both a summer holiday, and a winter break. 

Landmarks and culture:

Barcelona is bursting with landmarks, many created by world famous architect Antonio Gaudi, with extras by others such as Frank Gehry. Both Architecture enthusiasts and regular holiday makers are attracted by the beautiful and alternate landscape of Barcelona. 

Shopping:

Barcelona has a great range of shops ranging from designer, to high street and souvenirs, meaning their is something for everyone. 

City/Beach:
Barcelona combines both city and beach meaning that visitors get two holidays in one, the hustle and bustle of the lively spanish city complimented by a long sprawl of golden sand, only 15 minutes walk down Las Ramblas.

Barcelona FC:

Barcelona is also home to one of the most successful international football teams in the world, and for that reason, people flock to Barcelona not just to see the team play in their home ground, but to visit their home stadium.

Activities:

Barcelona also has a massive amount of other activities that can be enjoyed, culture injected flamenco shows, a trip to the Barcelona zoo, a sky ride down Mont Juic, Portaventura theme and water park next door in Salou. in Barcelona there is something for everyone.  

Business:

Due to the high amounts of tourism and the traffic of people flocking to Barcelona for tourism, business has also boomed and now companies insist on opening up chains in Barcelona, as it is increasingly becoming a huge tourism and therefore business hub.

I noticed a correlation between this list and the list of background attributes on the brief:

'Great global cities have many attributes - access to a deep pool of human capital, great jobs and businesses. Fast and effective transport connections. Strong universities and hospitals, colleges and schools. They have the entertainment, the green spaces, the housing, culture and sport that makes for a good lifestyle. 

Using Manchester from the list of cities we are using as parts of the Northern Powerhouse, I made a list, with the attractions of Barcelona in mind, and the range above, what would attract people to this part of the North of England. 

Weather:

Seasonal climate. 

Sun in summer. 

Snow in winter. 

Shopping:

City centre.

Trafford centre. 

Football:

Manchester United. (Old Trafford)

Manchester City. (Manchester)

Entertainment:

Live shows at the M.E.N. arena.

Manchester Academy shows. 

Royal exchange theatre. 

Palace theatre. 

Granada studios.

Cinema.

Snowboard and ski @ Chill factor. 

Landmarks:

Town hall. 

China town. 

Quays. 

Nightlife:

Bars.

Clubs.

Restaurants. 

Live shows. 

Culture:

Art galleries. 

Imperial war museum. 

Food:

Print works.

Restaurants. 

Lots of different cultures. 

I think that one of the main issues is that the south, including London has always been romanticised, constantly featured in films, when people think of England they think of London. As the brief suggests London and the south, are great places, they display all the same kind of facilities that Manchester has, but, they have been branded to be much more amazing and desirable to visit. This is what the North is missing, and in turn what we must build. 

I found a great selection of branding on Behance in which someone has branded the Portuguese city 'Porto'. When looking at the branding it could be assumed that if one did not know, Porto could be the capital. Through the branding it appears thriving, busy, interesting and desirable. The branding communicates a mass of different activities and likes that may appeal to just about everyone. But Porto is the second largest city in Portugal trailing behind Faro.

Behance branding: Porto

I think the strengths of the Porto branding derives from a number of elements. Firstly I notice the honesty and authenticity in the aesthetic of Porto's branding, colours and style is derived from the landscape and art of porto as shown in the image below. What also succeeds is its versatility in that the selection of icons created can be interchanged and substituted to create a variation of patterns meaning that Porto can be redesigned and put together to fit the needs of anyone and everyone. Porto can be many things.

The simple icons displayed with the aesthetic above display all elements of Porto including buildings, food, culture and sport as shown below. 

The icons are then taken and one by one placed into a pattern to create Porto's very own visual landscape combining everything and anything there is to know about and do in Porto. 

The pattern is entirely flexible and can be easily changed and altered to create a range of different 'patterns of Porto.'

Two of the extra elements mentioned in the brief are how the brand can work in the urban environment and Train livery. Both of which have been done by the designers of the Porto brand, and both of which act aesthetically consistent with the Porto brand. 

Porto video ad:

Old

Very noble

Always loyal

And unbeaten

City of Porto. 

it has has always been

Porto. 

I plan to discuss with my group what they think of the idea of a symbolic system used to represent the North when we meet tomorrow. 

Aside from this I also played around with a few logo ideas. My two concepts for the logos I have created so far were strong and bold with a subtle reference to the North. It is important that the North Appears strong in its brand, to brother London and not look like the weak link, but also to hold its own on the world stage. 

I have tried to chose a strong serif typeface that will stand out and hold its own when used in posters and to make a mark. 

I will take all of my logo ideas to the group meet up tomorrow to see what they think. I personally enjoy the last two logos as they seem strong and authoritative, in a bold typeface, with a subtle reference to the North via the use of arrows as A's.