Peter and Paul designs Creative England identity

Sheffield-based consultancy Peter and Paul has created the new identity for Creative England, the body that was set up last year to replace the Regional Film Councils.

Creative England

Creative England says it put out an open call for entries for the branding project last year and received more than 150 entries – eventually shortlisting five.

Peter and Paul was appointed and developed a spiral logo, which will be used across all Creative England’s marketing materials, including its website.

Although it replaces the Regional Film Councils, Creative England will have a broader remit and aims to offer support to the games, digital and creative industries as well as film and television.

The organisation says it aims to become ‘the first joined-up, dedicated support agency for creative industries outside London.’

Paul Reardon, creative director at Peter and Paul, says, ‘It’s important to Creative England that they respond to new audiences, and let their remit evolve as really required.

‘We had to embrace that fluidity, so the new identity is really about showing them as dynamic and moving.’

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Comments
  • Callum Collie November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Ironically, I’m struggling to see that any creativity went into this whatsoever…

  • Ian Ellery November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The worst logo since the London 2012 Olympic abortion!

  • Mike Lamb November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    My 6 year old son is more creative than this.

  • David November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Agree with Callum 100%. I don’t see how this reflects the organisation or creativity as a whole. The rationale is very weak. This logo isn’t dynamic in the slightest. The logo breaks the rules for all the wrong reasons, I feel I’ve took a step back to the 90’s “swoosh logo” era, and how does this expand to become an identity? Judging from the website it doesn’t. No creativity whatsoever. Reflects badly on the creative industry in my opinion.

  • Mark Roberts November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Be fair with the olympics around the corner its got rhythmic gymnastics written all over it!

  • Jim Richardson November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    This project was always a bit of a poisoned chalice, and I am sure the designers expected to be slated.

    Personally I think it is wrong to judge the logo alone, we need to see how it’s applied across all Creative England communications.

    Peter and Paul are a good agency and it’s easy for anyone to claim that they could do better, without knowing the circumstances in which it was designed (client direction for example).

  • David Bartholomew November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    So 150 companies/individuals free-pitched and this was result?

    Nobody considers the whole cost of exercises such as this to the design industry.

    Let’s say each entry cost £600 – that’s £90k down the drain.

  • Tim Burley November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Do we know that the 150 submissions included spec work? Has anyone confirmed this? I read a different report that said they used creds to whittle the 150 applicants down to 5.

  • jemmamills November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    i have nothing against all-lowercase logos, however i think seeing the word “England” with a lower case E just looks wrong wrong wrong. I dont like the whitespace or the justification of the text it looks really amateurish and i think its retarded that they didnt bother to get their branding done by a proper agency and just held a competition for some freebies. way to support creative industry.

  • David Bartholomew November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Yes, we do.

    From the CE website:

    The organisation put out an open call for applications for a new brand identity in November last year, asking designers to present an image that captured Creative England’s work and values.

    More than 150 applications were received, of which five were shortlisted.

  • David Bartholomew November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Apparently the budget was £5k. There have been brick-bats on other websites for this crowd sourcing approach.

    So, £90k (?) sucked out of the design industry in return for £5k in – great support for creative England from ‘Creative England’.

  • Prue Fenwick November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Exactly why we as an agency turned this down: asking for free pitching from an agency that supposedly supports creativity in the UK. Something’s pretty wrong there….

  • David Bartholomew November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    I’d like to know what their defence is…

  • Tim Burley November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    “it’s easy for anyone to claim that they could do better, without knowing the circumstances in which it was designed (client direction for example).”

    By the sounds of it there was none. Some Creative England bigwigs sat down with 150 versions of “an image that captured Creative England’s work and values”, and picked one.

    Great to see they have an intrinsic grasp of the value design can add.

  • David Bartholomew November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    The whole thing was clearly an outrageous waste of time for 149 companies. Come on creative England, let’s hear your defence!

  • Andy Jones November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    Just to clarify one point on the rebrand. At no time did we ask for design work upfront and of the 150 proposals, only a handful sent in actual designs.

    We asked for a couple of pages detailing a brief company profile and a couple of examples of previous work.

    We then selected a shortlist based on this information. The shortlisted companies were never asked for any design work and did not provide any.

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