Manchester Art Gallery’s Head of Services, Kate Farmery had past experience of working for ad agencies and marketing within the arts and she had a good understanding of how the relationship between client and designer works.
But when she started thinking about a wayfinding design scheme at the gallery, she knew she had to clearly outline the issues that needed to be addressed and, in some cases, worked around, to design agency Holmes Wood who took on the project.
Apart from setting the available budget in stone, Holmes Wood was given a “relatively free rein to think laterally and creatively about solutions”. “I always say to designers ‘you are the ones who need to come up with the physical manifestation of what I need to achieve’,” explains Farmery. “I’d overseen the original brand identity and signage scheme and I’d steeped myself in the feedback so I knew what was working and what needed to work better.”
Alexandra Wood says that Farmery’s brief helped make Manchester Art Gallery the best sort of client. “She clearly understood the value of good design, but was not dominant about her personal taste.”
While ideas were being developed, the design agency met regularly with the art gallery team. Dialogue between the two parties was crucial to success at this development stage, says Wood. “We got on well and met and talked often. Kate was very clear about how important a successful outcome was and was not afraid to champion our ideas when necessary. She also appointed a project manager at the gallery who was fabulous and dealt with the day-to-day issues as they arose.”
Solutions to the gallery’s problems quickly took shape, but negotiations with the planning department of the local council, who were “very thorough and involved”, according to Farmery, meant their ideas had to be powerfully presented but remain adaptable. So much so that some suggestions, such as moving fixed banners on the outside of the building, failed to materialise despite a strong design case being made for them, as it would have involved further lengthy dialogue with the planners.
Discussions about things like the new pieces of furniture that would fill the gallery required careful negotiation. “So many people had opinions about how they should look and what colour they should be,” says Farmery who had to ensure negotiations between gallery staff and the designers were managed so that they got a result within the timescale they had set.
In the end the transformation was dramatic:
- Exterior signage was changed from a dark grey that got lost against a similar background to an off-white that really stood out.
- Inside, the old information room was closed and the information desk relocated to make it easier for visitors to find. A mobile welcome desk pod was built for the front entrance
- Information screens were installed
- The floorplan and all of the signage was redrawn
- Members of staff were issued with a new uniform.
But the transformation didn’t stop there, says Farmery: “As we worked on a new corporate identity for the building we realised that we needed to move the brand identity on a stage.” To keep up with the level of refurbishment the building had undergone, Farmery thought the museum’s brand needed overhauling as well. In particular, it needed to convey more strongly the fact that the gallery was a user friendly, welcoming space for all kinds of visitors and that it worked for corporate events as well as spur of the moment visits.
This phase of work saw a complete review of the gallery’s brand identity and all of its communication materials. New corporate photography was commissioned, the website was redesigned, a new copywriting style was created, leaflets were produced that targeted the requirements of different visitors and a whole new colour palette for the gallery was introduced. In all the process took two years to complete.
