Brand Avenue

Giants on the Earth

Below, photos of artist Anish Kapoor's Temenos, which when built will become part of the Tees Valley Giants art project at Middlesbrough in England, the "world's largest public art project."

 

The sculpture will fill what is currently a rather bleak landscape between Middlesbrough's Transporter bridge and the Riverside stadium and, appropriately, at 110m will be as long as a football pitch. The 50m-high steel structure consists of a pole, a circular ring and an oval ring, all held together by a kind of cat's cradle of steel wire.

Part of a regional regeneration scheme, Temenos' construction will be followed by similar structures in several nearby communities. The "why" of the project is explained by Joe Docherty, the head of Tees Valley Regeneration:

He said it was a declaration that the area had changed, that it was prepared to take risks. "This isn't something we need in the Tees valley. It's something we deserve. This is a calling card that the area is on the turn."

Kapoor, who is collaborating with structural engineer Cecil Balmond on the sculptures' designs, expands on how public art, particularly at such a massive scale, can transform perceptions of place:

"In many ways scale is a deep, mysterious and wonderful thing, and yet at some levels it gets a bad name. To reinvigorate and re-initiate scale is one of the things we're about," said Kapoor.

"There are all the arguments about public art - couldn't we have spent money on a hospital, say - and all the arguments are correct. But what happens after a while is that these things have the possibility of infiltrating people's consciousness. You can't say it's going to happen, but you can hope it does."

Watch a video about the project, here.

Further south in Sheffield, two "self-proclaimed 'post-industrial city lovers' in their mid-20s" propose the adaptive reuse of two disused cooling towers, landmarks on the city's skyline. (Below, via Flickr. More photos)

The Tinsley cooling towers - bleak, elegant, real - are often the first and last thing people see as they enter and leave the city. But soon, like Sheffield's industrial golden age, they will be consigned to history, demolished to make way for a new power station....Over the last three years, the 1940s towers have become symbolic of the battle for the city's soul - between those determined to create a 21st-century gleaming metropolis and those intent on preserving and celebrating some of the city's industrial heritage.

Tom James and Tom Keeley...have been campaigning to have the redundant 76 metre-high towers, which stand just 17 metres from the motorway, transformed into a space for public art. "The idea was to transform the cooling towers into something amazing," Keeley says. "Our Angel of the North - something that would really make people think about Sheffield differently".

But after competitions, petitions and endless meetings, after internet campaigns, the promise of public money and support of internationally acclaimed artists, the dream is finally over. E.ON, the company that owns the towers, has said they must be destroyed. 

Watch a beautifully done promotional video explaining James' and Keeley's vision for the towers as "icons for the evolving city," here. Despite the apparent, tragically unhappy ending coming up for the towers, a really brilliant idea.

Be Here Now

On a quest to redefine itself, the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland unveiled a new branding campaign this week, from the London-based branding consultancy Lloyd Northover. (via) Shedding the associations with strife that have long defined it, Belfast positions itself instead as the perfect place to self-actualize:

The new brand is spearheaded by a heart-shaped B logo, accompanied by messages including the word 'be' — such as 'be welcome', 'be part of it', and 'be vibrant'. Its aim is to help market Belfast to international visitors and potential investors, promoting the city as an exciting, vibrant and welcoming place....

[Lord Mayor] Hartley said the unveiling of the new branding of Belfast was significant. "This is not about a logo on a piece of paper. It is an opportunity for us all to embrace a new, vibrant and forward looking identity and ethos which says that Belfast has come of age. We all know how unique the city and its people are and now we have a golden opportunity to take the message that this is Belfast's time, its moment and we want to share it with everyone. Be inspired."  

Forming the beginning of a phrase, the logo is literally "read" as open-ended, suggestive of possibility and appropriateness no matter the situation or sentiment.

 

Belfast's malleable new identity comes in multiple colors, too. And there are television spots to expand the theme of individual and collective inspiration. Is it effective? Does it inspire love? Does it effectively tie to the experience of place? Time will tell.

     

 

Halfway around the world in the American Midwest, two brothers print t-shirts, underwear, and even baby clothing that promotes their hometown. Like Belfast city elders, STL-Style founders Randy and Jeff Vines are out to transform commonly held perceptions about place. The difference is in their approach:

 

The St. Louis-themed shirts that Jeff Vines and his identical twin, Randy, make are not for tourists. They sport neighborhood references and inside jokes unintelligible to those not from here. Some easily offend, displaying profanity and raunchy innuendo. But to the Vines brothers, their edginess is part of their mission for St. Louis — a place many of their friends from high school fled — to rehabilitate its image from the inside out and, ultimately, to make future generations want to stay.

“You have to get the people who live there to be the best advocates for the city, or else you don’t really have much,” Randy Vines said. “So you need to change the psyche and change the way they see their own city.”

The Vines brothers, 30, are not alone in their effort. In cities like Youngstown, Ohio, and Detroit, damaged by the decline in manufacturing and decades of population loss, entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s are pushing back with the simple stuff of T-shirts, tote bags and soap. Faced with condescending attitudes from outsiders and grumbling from many locals, they are determined to peddle in pride, and hope to convert others in the process....

Putting logos on clothing connects individual identity to place, as per Neighborhoodies.

These T-shirt makers know, of course, that their merchandise will not cure the deep-seated problems of their cities. But they see them as one way to fight against powerful stereotypes, and consider them more authentic than city officials’ public relations campaigns.

Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of men’s wear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, said T-shirts can have a profound effect on social change, and that these shirts should not be underestimated. “It’s saying we’re cool, we’re here,” Mr. Blackman said. “We’ve not jumped out of the boat, this city is cool and we’re making it cooler, and look at us.”