Member Article

Coventry company has designs on £1bn decision

A Coventry-based design agency knows that its work could play a large part in the city earning up to £1 billion.

The Jade Studio, based at Electric Wharf, was chosen to design and deliver the bid the city is making to be UK City of Culture in 2021.

The document was delivered to Government last week and the Coventry City of Culture Trust, which is leading the city’s bid, expect to hear if it will be shortlisted later in the summer with a final decision being made and announced in December.

The Jade Studio was commissioned to design the identity for the bid and has worked on everything from banners to flyers, leaflets to the large 2021 hoardings at Coventry railway station.

Laura McMillan, manager of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, said: “We have worked with Jade for over 12 months in all aspects of design work, but obviously the official bid document is the major piece of work as we apply to be UK City of Culture 2021.

“It gives full details of proposed programme should we be successful, research into the city’s cultural and tourism offer and outlines the work we have done to this stage.

“It has meant hundreds of hours of work from a great many people not only to compile the contents, but also to then hone it into the final form.

“The final piece was to make sure that the presentation of the document was as stunning as the ideas within it, and Jade did a superb job. We are very confident that the judging panel will be impressed with our case.”

The Jade Studio was formed by Matt East and Jason Dickens in 2000 with support from the Prince’s Trust and now works across the UK for clients including Wembley, Leicester City, Danone and the University of Warwick.

Mikey Baxter, 29, Creative Director of the Jade Studio, said: “It has been really exciting working on a project which means so much to the city in which we area based.

“We have completed a wide variety of work for the City of Culture bid, from banners to badges and from brochures to flags. It is a really good account to work on because it deals with great images, some really vibrant young people and organisations and – of course – it could mean so much for the city.

“Although we work across the UK, we are very much a Coventry company. We were formed here and have always been based in the city.

“We work for a large number of companies and organisations who are headquartered in Coventry and Warwickshire so we fully understand the importance of the bid, and the level of responsibility which was involved in designing the official bid document.”

Coventry City Council, The University of Warwick, and Coventry University are Principal Partners of the bid and are providing significant support. The Ricoh Arena is Bid Sponsor while Jaguar Land Rover, Adient, Friargate, Coventry Building Society, the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham Airport, PET-Xi, SCC, Pertemps, and CEF (City Electrical Factors) are Bid Development Sponsors.

To show your support on social media, go to @Coventry2021 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For more information, log onto www.coventry2021.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .