Briefs

United Designers has completed its second commission for Celebrity Cruises, with the opening last week of a restaurant and two pre-dinner cocktail lounges on board luxury liner The Galaxy. The 1100-seat Orion Restaurant, the Rendezvous Square and The Champagne Bar lounges (pictured), feature specially designed furniture, carpets and murals. The colour scheme and materials used in finishes connect the three areas. The Orion Restaurant, a double height room with a mezzanine level, includes a suspended globe 10m in diameter against a background of 200 fibre-optic stars.

The Drum, Birmingham’s embryonic venue for Asian, African and Caribbean art, this week unveiled its identity by Leicester consultancy Newenglish. The identity is inspired by the image of a hand striking a drum skin. ‘The hand is seen from inside the drum,’ says Newenglish partner Carl Bebbington, while the overall shape of the image is formed by distorting a circle – the shape a drum becomes when it is hit. The identity will be applied to all publicity and marketing materials, including a proposed Internet site. Newenglish is liaising with Associated Architects over signage for The Drum’s site, the former Aston Hippodrome, due to open in Spring 1998.