Elephant and Castle lets Wire hold fort with logo

Wire has created branding for London’s Elephant and Castle, as part of the £1.5bn regeneration plan for the area announced last week.

The group was appointed in November following an initial 11-way pitch, which was narrowed down to a two-way shortlist between Fitch London and Wire.

The work is scheduled to launch next week at MIPIM, the international property conference in Cannes, and will be applied across hoardings and signage, stationery, literature, a website – www. elephantandcastle.org.uk – and interactive presentations. According to a spokeswoman for Southwark Council Elephant and Castle Regeneration Team, the work was commissioned to ensure a cohesive identity for both the social and physical aspects of the regeneration programme.

Wire was briefed to create ‘an umbrella brand that brings many complex messages together in an articulate way and talks to a diverse range of audiences, ranging from local residents to potential investors’, she explains.

According to Wire creative director Peter Higgins, the work ’emphasises the potential of the Elephant and Castle location’. It uses a quartile shape to ‘reclaim London’s south-central quarter’ and illustrates Elephant and Castle’s central role in the area.

Creating a brand ‘for something that doesn’t physically exist yet, a brand for the future’, posed a particular challenge, adds Higgins.

The ten-year Elephant and Castle regeneration master plan, drawn up by architect Foster & Partners, sees the area’s much maligned pink shopping centre and Heygate Housing estate replaced with a mixed-use scheme.

The master plan incorporates residential and retail areas and a public space the size of Trafalgar Square. A competition to find a designer for the public square is likely to be held next year.