Metal are an exciting arts organisation with big ambitions, but they had an outdated brand that lacked direction and clarity, and needed a new and innovate identity to help them unite diverse teams and projects happening all over the country. Metal was founded in 2002 and since then have come a very long way. 2009 was a very significant year for Metal, with the launch of two new art spaces - the Grade II listed Chalkwell Hall in Southend and Edge Hill Station in Liverpool, the oldest surviving passenger railway station in the world. The two launch events provided the perfect opportunity to showcase a new and coherent brand.

The main objective for the rebrand was to get full attendance of 2000 people to two high profile launch events at Metals renovated sites. We also aimed to galvanise artists, local communities and stakeholders, and to create an exciting arts brand with commercial credibility and focus. Metal are an artistic, dynamic organisation and our approach had to reflect this. In print we used innovative, lesser-known techniques such as screen printing textured boards, die cutting and fluorescent inks.

The main deliverables for this project were event branding, signage, suite of print products for launch, merchandise including clothing and bags and a website. Online we created a blog led site to reflect the ever changing, informal nature of the organisation. We needed the site to appeal to Metal’s wide range of audiences from the non-arts community looking to find out more about Metal’s projects in their local area, through to established artists looking for a place to showcase work and challenge ideas. The site needed to be quirky and artistic whilst remaining true to Metal’s values of accessibility and openness– navigation needed to be easy to use, for people to find information specific to their interests quickly and easily.

It was very important to Metal the site would deliver on a design level but that they could run it alone after launch to maximise on ROI with a limited budget – therefore a fully integrated, bespoke content management system allows for regular updates by individuals across Metal’s different UK sites and by staff of varying digital capabilities.

Results since the launch of the new brand have been very positive: - 10,000 site visitors in the first month after launch - Post-launch site moved up to a third place, front page position in google when searching the word ‘Metal’ - 2000 people attended launch events for the new spaces in Liverpool and Southend - Awarded Roses Design award for promotional literature elements of the brand