Creative round-up April 2025
Every so often the Ingenious Design team likes to share an eclectic selection of recent design news that has caught our eye…
A marathon April
Sunday 27 April was the biggest day of marathon running in the UK with nearly 90,000 participants running 26.2 miles! For the first time ever, the London and Manchester Marathons took place on the same day and we’ve picked up a couple of design facts about each event.
As well as a big M for Manchester, a closer look at the Manchester Marathon finisher medal reveals a design incorporating multiple smaller M’s which symbolise the many building blocks and steps taken to culminate in the triumphant crossing of the finish line.
London Marathon Events (LME) organise mass participation events in running, cycling and swimming. They engaged DEPT® to refresh branding for the company and all its events to create a distinct personality which embodies its core values. The first phase of this was a new look for the London Marathon, its flagship event. Newly created statement patterns, a vivid colour palette, clear typefaces and a branded photography style will now be carried across all elements of LME’s identity.
Update for SAVE Britain’s Heritage
SAVE Britain’s Heritage campaigns to bring new life to threatened historic buildings of all types and ages. Their aim is to upgrade and adapt buildings for re-use rather than conservation for the sake of it. A good example is Grade 1 listed Temple Works in Leeds, a former flax mill, for which a £10 million government grant was secured to help transform it into British Library North.
SAVE’s rebrand by Leeds-based Studio.Build needed to shake off its old-fashioned identity and appeal to a new generation of young adults as well as highlighting the charity’s 50th anniversary. The striking results include a bold marque, updated shapes and fonts, and a palette which avoids predictable ‘heritage’ colours in favour of strong colours suggesting action. A new tagline summarises SAVE’s work: ‘New Life For Remarkable Buildings’.
WH Smith a ‘masterclass in brand inconsistency’
‘Inconsistency isn’t just an aesthetic risk, it’s an existential one…’ says Will Bosanko in an opinion piece for Design Week which highlights ‘what happens when a brand loses clarity, consistency and the courage to move when it matters most.’
Established in 1792, WH Smith became a much-loved fixture on British high streets but more than a story of changing consumer habits and retail decline, it is now a case study in the cost of missing a pivotal moment to stay relevant. With lack of a clear, differentiated value proposition its identity became confused and its connection to customers weakened.
Sold to Modella Capital, its 480 stores are to be rebranded as TG Jones and the new brand will have to work hard to earn relevance. Bosanko sees risk but also an opportunity to build a clear, consistent brand aligned to modern consumer needs and with a clear vision for the future.
Paint in a newly discovered colour
A group of US scientists claim to have just discovered a new colour. To find this new hue, researchers fired laser pulses into their eyes to stimulate their retina cells and push perception beyond natural limits, revealing a blue/green colour they called Olo.
British artist, Stuart Semple has created a paint version of the new colour which he has named Yolo. Using a spectrometer, an instrument that separates light into colours, Semple measured his progress and added fluorescent optical brighteners to get ‘a very weird kind of glowy teal’.
Crawley Town FC design competition
A bit closer to home, Crawley Town FC, also known as the Red Devils, has launched a competition to design a new ‘Reggie’, the club’s popular mascot. Fans and the wider public have been asked to submit imaginative designs and finalists will be chosen and shown to participants of Crawley Town Community Foundation’s May soccer schools. The one with the most votes will be the winner!