In the vaporous slang of marketing, brand
identity is a protean phrase that can refer to
many things: the uniform of a stewardess, the
suspenders of a CEO, the brands of liquor in
a bar, and stationery, too – all the junk that
companies, corporations, institutions and now
even entire cities haul around in order to distinguish
themselves in the chaos of the society
of spectacle, which masks and muddies everything.
Therefore, Peter Saville must have
been slightly perplexed when his hometown
Manchester commissioned him to redesign
its identity. An anarchic quick-change artist
who rejects his every
new appearance as
soon as he adopts
it (Saville designed
record sleeves for
cult bands such as
Roxy Music and Pulp,
then was a member
of Pentagram, etcetera,
etcetera), Saville
has returned to his
city’s 19th-century roots to invent a concept
that would reinforce the pride of a community
in a serious slump. Like many other cities,
Manchester is slipping into decline for its ideological
commitment to a welfare society.
And
so Saville conceived of the slogan “Original
Modern”, a title under which to write the design
novel of New Manchester. A novel or maybe an
entire saga, because redesigning the identity
of such a complex place means designing not
only graphic elements, as perfectly fitting as
they may be, but also and especially, as Rachel
Combie of Marketing Manchester affirms, “to
apply creativity and innovation to the physical
regeneration of the city itself”. In other words,
to consider the whole social, anthropological,
ethical and architectural city-and-citizens as
a holistic body upon which to intervene organically,
in order to allow the entire community
to return to a contemporary life that is worth
living.
Manchester original modern
The city that was once the cradle of the industrial revolution is relying on Peter Saville to redesign its identity, literally.Design Peter Saville. Text Stefano Casciani
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- 25 January 2010
- Manchester