Design roster revealed for Virgin Media rebrand

NTL Telewest and Virgin Mobile have unveiled their full design roster ahead of their rebrand to Virgin Media next year. It follows the £962m merger of the two agreed in July.

Ashley Stockwell, NTL Telewest managing director of brands, has put the roster together. The core design team currently comprises four key design and branding consultancies, but the merged business will continue to appoint ‘specialists’ to work on projects such as on-line and product design initiatives when appropriate, says Stockwell.

The new additions to the roster are Household and Integrity Design Management, which join long-standing Virgin collaborators Start Creative and Judge Gill Associates.

The new entity’s rebranded corporate identity, Virgin Media, designed by Start Creative, was unveiled last month (DW 16 November).

Household is tasked with looking at new design solutions for the branded office environments, and Start Creative will continue to oversee the design of all graphics and branded material. Judge Gill is charged with leading retail design, and Integrity Design Management has been appointed to look at how the updated branding can best be applied and interpreted across the business, looking at new building signage, for example, says Stockwell.

NTL has also appointed change management group Seven Days to review the cultural change that is taking place across the businesses as a result of the merger.

All of the rostered consultancies will continue to work with the original, 12-strong Virgin Mobile in-house team, led by creative director Adrian Spooner.

‘Rather than just go with one consultancy, I have found, from my experience, that it is better to pick specialists in their field to lead projects. This may be more cumbersome from a management point of view, but it produces far better results. The rebrand is not a one-off project and is an ongoing process,’ says Stockwell.

There appear to be various Virgin Media projects in the pipeline that could reap work for designers across industry disciplines. For example, NTL Telewest is understood to be planning to launch a series of Virgin-branded television channels, such as video-on-demand.

The company is rolling out its extended range of services to customers, such as fixed lines, TV, mobile and broadband services.


Branding at Virgin Media

• Branding overseen by NTL Telewest managing director of brands Ashley Stockwell, who is overseeing the design roster

• 12-strong, in-house team led by creative director Adrian Spooner

• Roster line-up is Household, Integrity Design Management, Start Creative, Judge Gill Associates

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