The MIX MANCHESTER brand was launched back in May following an extensive development process with our partners at Siren Design. We asked Rod Smith to talk through their approach, their vision for the new brand and how they brought that vision to life with the colourful and dynamic branding which you can now see surrounding the site and across all of our new marketing collateral.
From the outset we knew that the vision was to create a flexible science, technology and manufacturing campus with innovation at its heart. This vision needed to be represented by a new brand identity and positioning, our approach followed a pattern based around exploring the four ‘D’s’:
Discover
Define
Develop
Deliver
As part of the redevelopment of the site, we undertook research to understand perceptions amongst a variety of key stakeholders. This insight informed the brand architecture, strategic positioning, and messaging for what has now become MIX MANCHESTER.
Research is key
The research process helped us to discover and capture the most compelling aspects of the UK’s only airport-based offering, and this insight fed directly into the development of a strategic brand structure of pillars, positioning, values, and tone of voice.
The combination of these elements enabled us to develop the name and creative expression for the new brand.
A qualitative rather than quantitative approach was undertaken in the form of a workshop day followed up with individual stakeholder interviews. This was incredibly successful and helped define the pillars for the brand framework, positioning, and to establish a creative brief.
We defined that MIX MANCHESTER is:
Manchester’s one-of-a-kind, adaptable ecosystem for science, innovation, and manufacturing.
A place which offers occupiers a ‘bench to bedside’ approach enabling science, research, and manufacturing to happen side by side on-site.
A campus uniquely positioned to serve as Manchester’s innovation gateway, defining itself as a thriving neighbourhood, not a business park.
Ready to go! With infrastructure already in place, it gives occupiers the ability to bring all aspects of their business on-site at a scale unrivaled in the north west.
A destination that grants immediate access to a dedicated talent pool, as well as secure, global, and logistics connections through the airport and the wider Greater Manchester area.
What’s in a name?
At this point in the journey, we were fully immersed, engaged, and excited to develop the creative treatment. But, how do you name a scheme of such significance?
The name needed to be memorable, confident, and stand apart from normal protocols, and the idea of MIX was born from collaboration at the workshops.
Manufacturing and Innovation are at its core, in a setting where ideas and conversations are eXchanged.
We really enjoyed the interplay you can have with the name MIX; it could be defined by its acronym but the word itself suggests a melting pot of experiences, collaboration, and diversity.
A good brief leads to good design
Taking this approach to fully understand the challenges and opportunities, we were able to design a clear brief. By always going back to the question ‘does this answer the brief, are we on track?’ we knew that what we were developing would hit the mark – it is easy to get excited with the creative and lose sight of the end goal and overall purpose.
Our approach was one of client collaboration, meeting regularly to discuss new ideas and ensure we didn’t fall into any generic visual traps, or that the name didn’t look like any competing science, technology, and manufacturing locations.
Design notes
Coming back to the brief, we needed to create a logo that was expressive – one which could live in a digital and physical space and which would create a mark that would be strong just on its own or would sit comfortably alongside supporting imagery. It was key that the brand would reflect the scheme’s values: Collaborative, Pioneering, Flexible, Global.
The logo was born from the letter ‘X,’ its flexibility allowing us to work within 2D and 3D forms, which is so important in our digital world. We needed a dynamic mark that could stand the test of time.
The color palette is bold and vibrant, feeling confident and dynamic yet warm and human.
It was important that the photographic style was also dynamic and inspiring with collaboration at its core, so we used stylized images with contrasting, bright colors that complement the energy of MIX MANCHESTER and the dynamic brand palette.
We believe with MIX MANCHESTER we have created something very successful and the whole team at Siren Design is incredibly proud to see the brand brought to life both on-site and online.