Man City kick off a new season with Judge Gill

Manchester City Football Club’s £1.2m Reebok City superstore, part of the club’s newly-transformed stadium, opens this Friday with branding and interiors by Judge Gill.

The Reebok City building, located adjacent to the stadium’s new North Stand, incorporates a retail facility, exhibition space and café/ bar.

The exhibition space, City Experience, and adjacent bar area feature concepts by exhibition specialist Mather & Company.

Judge Gill has designed a graphic identity for Reebok City using Reebok’s font and colourway, as well as a marque for the stadium’s bar and café, City Social. Both will be widely applied. It has also created interiors for the bar/café and retail areas of the site.

City Social will cater for fans on non match-days and will transform into a 180-seater restaurant when games are played, says Judge Gill project designer Ric Mather.

It is designed to help fans uprooted from the club’s former Maine Road stadium ‘feel at home’, adds Mather, and opens in early August.

The store on the ground floor, called City Store, will be a ‘flexible environment’ to cope with increased traffic flow on match days, he says. The store will also feature a ‘self-replenishing’ football shirt wall, stocked from behind by staff.

Located on Reebok City’s first floor, City Experience will tell the story of Manchester City’s history. Audio visual elements, interactive areas and temporary exhibition spaces aim to recreate the ‘rollercoaster’ emotions that go with supporting Manchester City, says Mather & Company managing director Chris Mather.

Judge Gill won the work after a creative pitch in 2001. Mather & Company was appointed in December last year after a four-way unpaid creative pitch.

The City of Manchester Stadium has been transformed from an athletics track for last year’s Commonwealth Games to become Manchester City’s football ground.