Odd works on Westfield Stratford City branding

Odd is working on the branding for the Westfield Stratford City development in east London.

Retail developer Westfield appointed Odd around six months ago, following a creative competitive pitch. It briefed the group to refine the Stratford City logo and to draw up brand guidelines governing typography, graphic design and image use, colour palette, tone of voice, art direction, formats and paper types,’ according to Odd creative director Nick Stickland.

A spokesman for Westfield says the developer is creating the brand strategy in-house.

Westfield Stratford City is located next to the London 2012 Olympics site. When it opens in 2011, the retail, office and residential development will be bigger than the White City centre that opened in west London last year.

‘Because of the site’s location in east London, Westfield has briefed us to inject as much creativity into the branding as possible. Creativity is central to our brief,’ says Stickland.

He adds that Odd hopes to differentiate the branding for Stratford City from that of White City. ‘White City is very much about premium fashion, elegance and sophistication, and its branding employs black on black, while Stratford City will be much more colourful,’ says Stickland.

A metallic colour palette, inspired by the bronze cladding on one of the site’s main buildings, will sit with a Didoni font. Odd has ‘tightened’ the Stratford City logo, according to Stickland. The Olympics branding has also informed Odd’s work.

‘The branding shouldn’t be tied to the Olympic marque, but the brand does need to be sympathetic to its very important neighbour – both are big brands and need to have their individuality, but you can see that both will be trying to feed off the creative heritage of the area,’ says Stickland.

Odd has just designed a sales brochure (pictured) to attract retailers to consider leasing space at the 73ha site.

‘This is one of the most important things for the development, as it tells the Stratford story from a retail perspective, including information about the catchment area, to the existing retailers,’ says Stickland.

Odd will create billboard advertisements and a totem to sit outside Stratford station promoting the new shopping development. Stationery is set to roll out in the next month.

The group is also working on the wayfinding that will guide potential retailers from the train station to a new visitor centre.

WESTFIELD STRATFORD CITY

• Termed ‘the gateway’ to east London’s Olympic Park
• Site has so far secured the John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer as anchor stores
• The 73ha site has room for 300 more fashion, home and lifestyle brand retailers
• More than 35% of households in Stratford fall within the 25- to 44-year-old bracket