Client:
Manchester Central
Title:
Manchester Central rebrand
“The rebranding of Manchester Central as the hub of the city's convention product has been one of the most significant developments to happen to Manchester's conference and exhibition offer in the last decade.”
Paul Simpson
Chief Executive, Visit Manchester
The development of a new name and identity scheme for Manchester’s prestigious international convention complex.
Read moreManchester's main conference venues, GMEX and the Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC), were lagging behind competitors such as Edinburgh and Birmingham in attracting convention business, with new facilities opening in Liverpool and Dublin likely to further reduce their appeal.
Hemisphere was tasked with rebranding GMEX and MICC to create a more coherent proposition to an international target market, delivering increased economic impact and raising the city's profile as a conference destination.
The solution was presenting the combined facilities under a single name, Manchester Central, with the addition of a more elastic brand name - Manchester Central Convention Complex - to encompass other business tourism facilities in the area, effectively creating a convention 'one-stop shop' close to the heart of the city centre.
The design solution was influenced by the need for greater international appeal and took as its starting point the European signage symbol for town/city centre, with each of the concentric rings coloured to reflect different physical aspects of Manchester Central's location.
The rebranding of Manchester Central received a prestigious Design Effectiveness Award in 2009.
