Last Tuesday saw the realisation of the Hull Designer Meetup after extensive planning from meetup organiser Tom Hurt, Designer and Founder of TH3 Design. There was a fantastic turnout, with more than 40 people coming from both within and outside the C4DI community.

“We had great feedback after” Tom summarised, “a lot of the people who attended were fascinated to find out more about the pitch and early concepts of the project as well as the final brand.”

Taking place in the midst of Hull 2017, the aim was to base the first session on the City of Culture celebrations, so the first port of call was to get in touch with Ben Marshall from Jaywing: the design agency behind the Hull 2017 brand.

Tom explained that for him, “The thing that made it so interesting was how honest he was, it was really quite refreshing” and that Jaywing created “One hell of a set of brand guidelines, that were incredibly detailed whilst still being flexible”

“There’s more to the story” was the philosophy of their design process, and became a major tagline for the City of Culture along with “Everyone back to ours” and “Look Again”, trying to change people’s current perceptions of Hull.

Along with these taglines it was the tone-of-voice of a lot of the copy that became central to the brand’s identity, with cheeky near-swears such as “It’s time to get absolutely cultured.”, aiming to be brutally honest but still friendly and inviting (somewhat parallel to the people of Hull…).

We have tons to look forward to at the next Designer Meetup in 2 months time, with Tom Moran from Th_nk Agency coming to C4DI to talk about their approach to design and how their designers and developers work together, as well as running through some projects they’ve worked on.

Get in touch with Tom for more details!