Farrell Centre

Branding a world leading national centre for architecture.

Established by Newcastle University with kind donations from acclaimed architect Sir Terry Farrell, the new centre is planned to open in 2022.

It will take inspiration from Farrell’s recommendation that every city should have an ‘urban room’ where citizens can actively engage with their city’s past, present and future.

The centre will offer creative workspaces, exhibitions, learning programme’s, event hire, a changing activity programme and will welcome people regionally, nationally and internationally.

Gallery brand identity Farrell Centre

It will also draw from Farrell’s archives covering over 40 years in practice as one of the world’s leading architects and planners, donated to Newcastle University in 2017. Access to the archives will be by booking only.

We were appointed following a 4 way credentials proposal, to work with the University communications team, architecture and arts departments, and the new centre director to create a brand identity, guidelines and website for the new centre of architecture.

We created a playful and warm identity, with contrasting letter forms reflecting the many experiences audiences might have and the multi-faceted, thought provoking activity the centre aims to promote within and beyond the physical building.

Gallery brand identity Farrell Centre
Gallery brand identity Farrell Centre

Farrell is renowned for his maximalist, post modernist architecture and we wanted to reflect this in the typography, mixing letters in an eclectic and surprising way.

With the centre having such a broad audience – from regional and national visitors to local community, education and academic audiences to hard to reach communities, these audiences would be looking for different experiences so it was essential the identity reflected that.

The visual style was created to be flexible and adaptable incorporating exhibition imagery and bold typography. CGI’s of the building interior and exterior have been used to show the vision and ambition for this world leading centre.

Gallery brand identity Farrell Centre
Gallery and museum brand guidelines
Gallery and museum brand guidelines
Gallery and museum website
Gallery and museum brand
Gallery and museum brand

Online, the opportunity lay in raising awareness of the Farrell Centre to create a platform that can welcome, engage and involve a wide community to embrace this exciting new place even before a physical visit is possible.

With such a broad audience we had to ensure the website was multi-layered and created in an engaging, accessible and sharable way.

Capturing interest and motivating engagement was key, content from behind the scenes, outreach programming, podcasts and video would all contribute to an inclusive and active platform for their wide audience.

Our aim was to create a site to be the home of the Farrell Centre until people could physically visit the centre for themselves.

Gallery and museum website

We worked with Altogether from an early stage to devise the branding approach for the Farrell Centre. Altogether had so many great ideas, all of which helped in arriving at the approach we chose. They were instrumental in shaping an identity and website that is as innovative and distinctive in its approach as the Farrell Centre itself, as a new type of public cultural institution.”

Owen Hopkins, Director, Farrell Centre