O Street talks about branding huge new Manchester arts venue Home

Like a big, tricky baby gestating over three years, O Street’s identity for Manchester arts venue Home was finally born last week having been growing and changing since 2012. The venue is the product of a coming together of two of Manchester’s best-loved arts organisations, Cornerhouse and the Library Theatre Company, and so it was never going to be easy creating a look and feel for something that not only didn’t exist yet, but that also carried such a rich heritage.

Ed Watt, O Street creative director, says: “The challenge was that people had such loyalty to the Cornerhouse that when there’s a change, there will always be some people who don’t like it. It’s not just about the branding, but the programming – so [Home] had to be a really good venue. The Cornerhouse had such a warm, welcoming vibe that we wanted to carry through to the new organisation.”

Having won a tender in 2012, O Street worked with strategists Creative Concern on coming up with the Home name, which fed into an identity referencing the door of a house. This is used across the typography which forms the main carrier of the branding across the venue in various guises. “The lettering can be seen as a whole or disintegrate, showing only some letters,” says Ed. “It can be playful or more challenging when it needs to be: people don’t want something that’s pretentious, but they want to be challenged, too.”

Alongside the reference to a physical house and home, O Street also looked to Manchester’s history – specifically the city’s Hippodrome – for inspiration. A character that emerged from the research was suffragette Annie Horniman, who founded Manchester’s Gaiety Theatre. “She was famous for the ‘play of ideas’ and we wanted to take that into the space, we want Home to be a vibrant, creative place,” says Ed.

So how does it feel to see such a long project finally emblazoned in huge lettering across its, well, Home? “When you’re creating a brand you want to stay in control but we knew really we were just making the building blocks,” says Ed. “We worked with a lot of people and in the end we want it to inspire people. When you create a brand, you have to set it free.”