Fruitmarket stocks Unreal identity

Edinburgh’s acclaimed Fruitmarket Gallery relaunches this week, with a revamped visual identity by Unreal.

The work on the gallery, which is worth a £15 000 fee to the consultancy, encompasses interior and exterior signage as well as print materials, including stationery, leaflets, a poster and an events calendar.

The group is also designing carrier bags and menus for the contemporary art gallery’s bookshop and café.

‘Our present identity [by Edinburgh consultancy Pure Design] is eight years old and a bit tired,’ says gallery director Fiona Bradley. ‘The brief was to update it and make it more coherent, not to reposition the gallery.’

Unreal head of design Brian Eagle says the refreshed identity revolves around the gallery’s geographic location. ‘We’ve played on the idea that The Fruitmarket Gallery is right at the heart of the city, both physically and culturally.’

Eagle adds that it was a ‘happy accident’ that the aerial view of Waverley Station’s platform area resembles the logotype’s letter ‘F’, which is also used throughout the gallery’s printed materials as a framing device.

Unreal was appointed to the work in mid-February without a pitch. Eagle and consultancy director and strategist Damian Horner are leading the project.