A new look for Urban Splash as the company marks its 25th anniversary year
Award winning regeneration company Urban Splash has marked its 25th anniversary by unveiling a brand refresh identity, and a suite of new brand collateral that assert their position as the established innovators of the property development world.
The Manchester-headquartered business was established in 1993 and has since created more than 5,000 new homes, more than two million sq ft of work spaces and won 400 awards for its commitment to architecture and regeneration, including 53 RIBA awards.
The brand refresh aims to celebrate these achievements, with a new simpler, pared-back brand look and feel that allows the places and neighbourhoods that Urban Splash create to shine. New collateral includes a 208-page book and exhibition entitled “It Will Never Work”– a celebration of 25 years of pioneering projects featuring contributions from many influential architectural voices including Deyan Sudjic and George Ferguson – as well as a new brand film, brand book and website.
Creative collaborators Smiling Wolf and Tokyo Wolf were consulted throughout the refresh, the company’s first aesthetic overhaul since 2008. The Liverpool-based agencies created a new set of brand guidelines, the design for the book and developed of the website.
Speaking of the new identity, Urban Splash Co-Founder and Creative Director Jonathan Falkingham MBE said: “We’ve spent 25 years transforming buildings, communities and cities across the UK, and we’ve changed and grown as a business throughout this period. It is imperative that we continually evolve and refresh our brand to reflect who we are today. Smiling Wolf have been instrumental in helping us through this, as well as the beautiful application of our aesthetics across our 25th anniversary collateral.”
Orla McGrath, Urban Splash Marketing Director added: “Urban Splash have always been pioneers, but with 25 years of innovation under our belts it was time for a more grown up aesthetic. We feel that the new simplified brand allows the homes, workplaces and neighbour-hoods we create to shine.”
The collateral comes in a year which also saw the developer co-host a major retrospective exhibition in collaboration with the RIBA, which chronicled its 25 year history; the exhibition launched in Liverpool, then Birmingham and next week it will move to the RIBA at Portland Place in London.
The aesthetic for the exhibition formed a large part of the rebrand campaign; Simon Rhodes, Co-Director of Tokyo Wolf continued: “The 25 year anniversary and updated brand identity marks a coming of age for Urban Splash. Our approach has been to streamline their visual language - allowing a content driven strategy to communicate a more confident and assured business; in turn this stance reinforces their position as established innovators – a key message within the exhibition and book."
Reflecting on the website, Aaron Bimpson, Tokyo Wolf Co-Director concluded: “Website wise we developed an enterprise-level CMS solution in Craft, providing content teams with complete flexibility. Publishers can manage editorial pages and customise modules to suit their content, rather than the other way around, whilst properties are managed as part of a Salesforce/Craft integration. The platform allows Urban Splash to forefront their commitment to pioneering urbanism.”
