Every crane in Greater Manchester is part of a wider story relating to the economic development of our city. At Placemarque, as wayfinding designers, our role is to tell these individual stories from a human perspective.

As storytellers we consider what is special about an area and consider how we can fire up people’s imaginations and encourage them to explore that few minutes further down the road, visit that new attraction, eat their lunch in a different park. We open up an area in people’s minds.

If you build it we’ll help people to get there and stay.  

Manchester is full of possibilities due to its distinct boroughs, its complex history and its attractiveness to visitors.
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Manchester is betting bigger: we are increasingly talking about Greater Manchester rather than ‘Manchester’, using the trams to travel across boroughs. In doing so we open up conversations about the history of each borough and how its identify should be revealed.

Is it possible to talk about Stockport without referencing hats, the Plaza Cinema or the market? Could we experience Bolton without referencing its mill history, its university or its innovation zone?

Can we build on the presence of Old Trafford Football Ground and Old Trafford Cricket Ground to create more of an experience for people making their sporting pilgrimage? By telling the right stories and using the correct branding and wayfinding, we can enhance the experience of residents as well as encouraging visitors.

We did this recently in Derby, which shares a similar history to Manchester. We played on its industrial heritage and engineering focus creating street signage using aluminium cogs whilst acknowledging today’s visitor’ needs using digital signage to provide background on attractions. It’s important to reference both the history and the now.

And as we develop distinct areas, let’s encourage people to move between them. When we opened our office nearly twenty years’ ago few people were living in city centres and wayfinding was focused on getting people in and out. Now with city centres becoming more  inhabited we see our role as providing an engineered serendipity, focusing on moving people around, while encouraging them to explore.

So for Manchester we need to remind Spinningfields’ office workers that the heritage, canals and bars of Castlefield are a ten minute’ walk away. We need to remind Manchester commuters that the second largest Chinatown in the UK is not only on its doorstep but is an engaging walking route from the old civic centre of Piccadilly Gardens to Manchester’s new civic centres of St Peter’s Square and Albert Square.

Cities that have experienced a swift economic evolution (and you can’t get much swifter than Manchester’s) often develop a complex grid system and we need to work harder to help people to hold the map of Manchester in their head. The Northern Quarter does this well in its warren of streets, varying its blue and white signage to differentiate horizontally-orientated and vertically-orientated streets. Other areas could do better.

We also have to acknowledge Manchester’s continuing attraction for domestic and international visitors which means we have an increased need to brand our city.

When visitors arrive into Manchester Airport they need to know the fastest way to get to the city centre with the confident signage of a city which is proud and adept at welcoming newcomers. Only when visitors arrive at Manchester Piccadilly train station do they need to know how to find Manchester Arena, Manchester Town Hall, The Etihad, Old Trafford or Bolton Stadium (our Boltononian director Sophie Campbell insists that this is key information for visitors.) And once they are safely and confidently enjoying our city, we need to encourage them to stay longer – and return – by opening up Manchester’s sometimes hidden attractions.

Competition for visitors and tenants has led to an increased focus on branding and wayfinding. It’s not a surprise that ‘placemaking’ is currently one of the most overused words in the property industry.

If you’d like to see how we can help with placemaking through our wayfinding, visit www.placemarque.com or call 0161 241 3174.

 

Placemarque are one of our partners for the Greater Manchester Economic Growth Conference.

Tickets for the event can be purchased here.
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