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Capital North - Brief 7 OUGD603 Adam Garbutt, Grace Buckley, Melisa Gator, Caitlin Walsh, Charlie Rotherham Leeds College of Art BA (Hons). Graphic Design

Brief

To brand the Northern Powerhouse and create awareness of its many and variedattributes to the rest of the world.

Concept

The government has recently revealed a strategy to develop the North of England as a second economic capital in Britain to redress the economic balance across the country and to compete on the world stage. They are calling this strategy Northern Powerhouse. The government believes that, by improving the transport infrastructure through HS3, connecting Leeds to Manchester, and tapping into the huge potential of the North of England, the North will become the globally significant economic force it has alwayspromised to be.

Research and Influence

Key brands that influenced the brief where The London 2012 Olympics for their well-designed application of graphics to items that furthered their brand, such as on a taxi and plane. Places, which would have the most interaction as well as places, which add little details. The mix between the both was a great balance and what we aimed to achieve with Capital North. The Melbourne city branding and the Porto city branding where other key rebrands that influenced our brief.

Capital North - Brief 7 OUGD603 Adam Garbutt, Grace Buckley, Melisa Gator, Caitlin Walsh, Charlie Rotherham Leeds College of Art BA (Hons). Graphic Design Research

Logo

The logo was a collaborative effort between Grace and I, we wanted to communicate motion through the link between the two characters to represent the train line. The chevron was an addition to further reinforce this connection, as well as the connection between the cities that the HS3 line will bring.

Identity and Colour

I designed the colour schemes for each city; I tried to represent them through the most neutralized way possible. Having no politics involved so to unite them without drawing attention to unnecessary noise such as the football teams the cities are famous for. The gradients where added in a futuristic aspect while still remaining timeless so not to appear dated ten years down the line. Keeping it simple.

Enviroments

Picking the placement for the branding institute was decided on a hierarchy from the train to the city, some didnt work like the above billboard simply because the gradients as an advertising agent dont work well on their own. However with photography it brings in a political element about what people are from where, which we were trying to avoid altogether.

Capital North - Brief 7 OUGD603 Adam Garbutt, Grace Buckley, Melisa Gator, Caitlin Walsh, Charlie Rotherham Leeds College of Art BA (Hons). Graphic Design Development

Posters and Enviroment Outcome

The environments we choose to display the brand where all picked to further the concept of motion and the future. As well as that, each piece was picked to be an interaction with transport, coming out of the train station, and out into the city the branding follows you.

Capital North - Brief 7 OUGD603 Adam Garbutt, Grace Buckley, Melisa Gator, Caitlin Walsh, Charlie Rotherham Leeds College of Art BA (Hons). Graphic Design Final Images

Train Design

The train was the focus to this brief, it was one of the first outcomes we worked on. This was were I came in to my element on this brief, creating mock-ups due to the rest of the team not being so savvy in Photoshop. So most of the mock-ups for this done by me, apart from the uniform featured here.

The concept behind the trains design was so that each city had a train with its own colours represented at the train station when theyre all in their platforms.

Capital North - Brief 7 OUGD603 Adam Garbutt, Grace Buckley, Melisa Gator, Caitlin Walsh, Charlie Rotherham Leeds College of Art BA (Hons). Graphic Design Final Images