Update 27th August 2018.

This may be my last update on this project. I feel the time is right to move on. The original scope of this project, started back in the early days of my Masters at Salford Uni in Sept 2010, have for me been full filled. The visual timeline and the content contained within have been fully developed, and to continue would only lead into a repetition of the some of the earlier reasons for doing this. Next year my family and I will be undertaking another trip to my home city ahead of the 23rd Anniversary, and it may well yield photographic evidence which can be incorporated into to one last montage, showing how the city has developed both from a colour point of view and architecturally...

Update 13th June 2018.

In advance of the 22nd Anniversary, here is the latest version of my Typographic Design to mark the event. Down the years since I first created the original Typography for this project, I have tried to reflect the changes that have occurred in the time, since that day on the 15th June. I now on a regular basis use this project, to show students here in NZ, how a longterm project can develop, but most importantly the process and methods behind this, and how to keep things relevant. Manchester has in the last 22 years changed significantly from the city and knew and worked in back in the 80's before my creative journey took me overseas.

The latest version above reflects how Manchester City Centre, architectually has changed dramatically. Ironically it has been said on many occasions had it not been for this bombing, the process of change would have happened far, far slower, quite possibly not at all. Where this will go to, no one knows the plans for future development are continually being evolved, and we'll see.

UPDATED! For the 21st Anniversary on the 15/06/17.

The latest anniversary development for this branding and project. 2017 is now the 21st Anniversary of the event which changed Manchester. This event has now been overtaken by the recent bombing outside the Arena on the 22nd May when 22 people lost their lives, this bombing never realised any fatalities thankfully, but with out this, Manchester would not have changed to become the International City it has become, and now has a Worldwide position, making it a target. We'll see how things will be recognised in the coming years on a more permanent basis, I doubt this will be forgotten unlike 15th June 1996.

UPDATED! For the 20th Anniversary on the 15/06/16.

The latest anniversary development for this branding and project. 2016 is now the 20th Anniversary of the event which changed Manchester. Yet it is reported in the Media, that there will be no Civic recognition of this event, which is really hard to believe.

The latest anniversary development for this branding and project. It is hard to believe that it is now 19 years since the bombing, and and 2016 will see 20th Anniversary.

 

The latest anniversary development for this branding and project. Over the last few weeks of developing ideas for my CHCH220213 Project, which has moved into a very distinctive colour phase, and reflecting the dramatic change in the Architectural Landscape, I began to think back again, at how Manchester's colour has dramatically changed even in the last 2-3 years. During my MA development creative work, there was a significant portion of this work, reflecting on the colour values.

 

I have gone back to this work, and now incorporated these changes into this Typographic Identity. In addition to this, I felt the 150696 aspect needed a freshen up visually, so this has been changed to the more visually explosive impact and using the 1996 City Centre Map. Below in the 150613, I have introduced the colour bars, and to the bottom of the ID, 17th Anniversary now sits. It crossed my mind that as the time parameters increase, and this event goes further back, then it also starts to be less focused.

 

More than at any time the City Centre is ablaze with colour!

 

There will be further updates and explorations of this, in the coming weeks and months...

 

UPDATED! For the 16th Anniversary on the 15/06/12.

Manchester has suffered at the hands of the terrorists.

This project has taken many turns since the original submission of the ‘Module Learning Agreement’ back in the summer of 2010. After discussions with both Tash Willcocks and Lawrence Giles, the project has been distilled into a much more focused highly personalised visual response to the traumatic events of 15.06.96 and how this impacted on one particular place, the Royal Exchange Building. This year on 15.06.11 it will be exactly 15 years since that fateful day. The legacy of the events of that day, and the subsequent recorded changes, are viewed from a very personal perspective, leading on from a ‘brutal life threatening event’, to now a ‘stunning example of creative visual awareness’ in the space of 15 years.

As such the aim is to highlight how a ‘practical creative visual study’ into the area of ‘visual awareness’ might be employed in respect to this research topic/area and how this might be effectively planned, developed, and created. As part of this exercise I have chosen to focus upon a specific environment, in this case Manchester, focusing on the area, which has witnessed dramatic change in recent years both due to urban regeneration and most significantly the IRA terrorist attack in June 1996.

The other supporting aim is to celebrate not only the changing face of ‘the city of my birthplace’, but also my ‘favourite place in this city’, the Royal Exchange Theatre and the building which houses this ‘extraordinary example of engineering’. To show how the events of that day in June affected the Theatre and the building. The images selected are just a small part of this ‘visual development’ and how I have responded to the challenge of the task as part of the ‘MA personal project module’. This has also been a ‘journey of visual self discovery’ for me, after spending many years away ‘both in London and on foreign shores’ coinciding with the same period of the ‘significant transformation’ of the city and it’s various levels of infrastructure.

The final result of this study is a ‘creative and visual exploration’ of a significant event in a city’s timeline 15.06.96, and how this impacted on not only the retail area, but also an ‘artistic arena’, in this case the Royal Exchange Building and the housed Theatre’. What we now see from the work undertaken and the research brought in to support the visual journey, is after adversity the area damaged including the Exchange building has been reborn and transformed in 15 years, to become an area of ‘cutting edge architectural design’ and highly creative use of colour to support the visual communication.