Music strikes the chord for National Football Museum’s Manchester move

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Music has created a new brand identity for the National Football Museum, to coincide with its move from Preston North End’s Deepdale football ground to a new home in Manchester’s Urbis building.

Music was appointed in December 2010 following a creative-led pitch involving six consultancies. The initial brief tasked designers with creating an identity for the more cosmopolitan city of Manchester and attracting a broader audience, says Music creative director Anthony Smith.

He adds, ’Appealing to football fans was never going to be a problem. It’s other people who are the challenge.’

Music avoided calling on clichéd visuals associated with football, such as goalposts and scarves, instead adopting a typographic approach, something which won it the pitch, says National Football Museum marketing manager Phillipa Duxbury.

The identity, which will roll out from the end of the month, features a list of emotive words associated with the game that can be changed to suit a number of different audiences, such as families or corporate sponsors, or can be translated to appeal to the museum’s expected international audience.

The colour palette has been carefully selected from a mixture of the most used colours on UK football kits, to appeal to a broad spectrum of fans. Smith says, ’You don’t want it to be all red or all blue, as some fans won’t go near it.’

The consultancy selected the font Brauer for its contemporary feel, and to stand out from the football industry’s fondness for Gill, the font used on several old match-day programmes.

Smith says, ’We didn’t want [the identity] harking back to the old days too much, it needed to have a life of its own.’

National Football Museum

  • Permanent displays for the new museum are being developed by exhibition design group Mather & Co, which created the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
  • The museum boasts a number of high-profile collections, which include mascots, medals, rare artwork and Bobby Moore’s shirt from the 1970 World Cup finals
  • The museum has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund and a £2m annual rolling grant from Manchester City Council
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