LOWRY arts centre in Salford, Greater Manchester, has undergone a rebrand ahead of its 25th Anniversary in 2025.
Named after 20th century painter LS Lowry, the theatre and gallery complex opened at the heart of Salford Quays in 2000 and the bustling entertainment hub MediaCity has grown up around it.
Today it welcomes around 1 million visitors a year and is seen as a blueprint for how arts, culture and creativity can engage hard to reach communities at a moment when communities and funding for the arts are under unprecedented strain.
After listening to customers and communities in the area it serves, this week sees LOWRY rebrand and relaunch with a new website, a new brand identity and new ‘straight-talking, Salford-inspired’ tone of voice.
Julia Fawcett OBE, Chief Executive at LOWRY, said: “With 2025 marking our 25th Anniversary we felt it was the perfect time to refresh the Lowry brand. We welcome more than 1million visitors ever year through our doors and engage with more than 30,000 young people each year through our community programmes – but we can do more! We hope that our brighter and bolder identity together with a more accessible tone of voice will help us reach even more people and help them to feel that LOWRY is a place where they can experience and enjoy creativity.”
Rachel Miller, Director of Audiences, Sales & Marketing at LOWRY, said: Through an extensive consultation process we realised that coming out of the pandemic LOWRY needed to realign its brand position to be much clearer and bolder. We have so much to offer as an organisation but that is often our challenge when describing ourselves to audiences and communities. We are thrilled to introduce our new brand, tone of voice and website that we feel better represents who we are and what we do.”
Manchester–based EDIT Brand Studio was appointed to create LOWRY’s new brand, which celebrates its diverse and inclusive offer and re-establishing its unique position as a catalyst for creativity in the cultural scene across Greater Manchester and beyond. The new brand identity unifies all Lowry’s programmes, products, food and retail under one core identity, inspired by LOWRY’s iconic architecture and interiors and echoing its confident and eclectic visual style.
Working alongside Reed Words, EDIT also developed a new verbal identity that seeks to better reflect Lowry’s desire for creativity to be experienced by the many, not the few. Summed up by the strapline ‘Whatever you’re here for, we’re here for it’, the new brand language positions LOWRY as a safe, non-judgemental space, where you can see anything from opera to The Gruffalo and visit the galleries and learning spaces.
Embracing the breadth and diversity of LOWRY’s programming, a quirky and playful photography style and art direction was created in collaboration with Manchester-based photography team Shaw&Shaw, in a bid to further reassure visitors that everyone is welcome here to experience the joy of creativity.
