31 Mar 2016

University arts project creates visual identity for Loughborough

The new identity was unveiled earlier this week on two billboards on display across town.

The billboards were produced by graphic design practice Europa and illustrator Peter Nencini. The artists were commissioned as part of the University’s Radar project called ‘ough’ough which looks at the identity of Loughborough. It questions how it has become the place that it is today, what it represents currently and what it could become in the future. The project challenged the boundaries of conventional notions of city identity and explored aspects such as civic heritage.

Europa and Peter conducted research locally and visited a variety of places including John Storer House, the local library, Charnwood museum and the Bell Foundry to get a feel for Loughborough and help them envisage their designs. The billboards reflect a range of intriguing images of objects found during their visits including historical items, living materials and objects from modern society.

The billboards will be on display for two weeks across Loughborough. They can be found towards the train station on King Street, Belton Road and Derby Road. 

Illustrator Peter Nencini said: “For this project we looked at the difficulties of creating identities for places and looked at the differences between brand identity and place identity.”

Director of Arts, Nick Slater, said: “We are delighted with the visual concepts that have been put together to form Loughborough’s identity and thank Peter and Robert Sollis from Europa for offering their insight. The commission has been part of a wider project run by Radar called Market Town in which artists have engaged with the town centre and all have been very well received by the public.”

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