​Students’ creative work will showcase Bury Town of Culture

Creative students have contributed to Bury’s Town of Culture year – by designing a new visual identity for the programme.

A group of art, design and other students at Holy Cross College & University Centre came up with the distinctive and colourful design after being set the challenge by the town of culture programme’s leaders.

They worked together through their ‘collective’, which acts like a design agency to manage and deliver on a brief for a client, using a wide range of skills including graphic design and art but also textiles, history, English and finance.

The visual identity has six colours incorporated into the letter B and a dot that follows the B – signifying the six different townships that make up the borough of Bury.

The design, already being used by Bury’s culture social media channels, is intended to be flexible so it can be adapted in the future as the programme widens to other townships in the borough.

The students who led the work were Ethan Shore, lead designer, Jacob Dyson, collective studio manager and Amy Matthews, collective magazine editor. They will finish their college studies this summer.

Laura Watt, Holy Cross acting head of art, said: “Our students were invited to the Town of Culture launch event in January and they went away and came up with initial designs, which the council really liked.

“It has been a great opportunity for them and they approached it in a very professional manner, working as a team and drawing on a wide range of skills.”

Councillor Jane Black, cabinet member for the cultural economy, said: “Bury Town of Culture is about the contribution of local people across the borough to our culture, heritage and identity, so we felt it was right for this visual identity to be created in Bury.

“The students at Holy Cross really took on board the challenge and have done a fantastic job. It’s proving that our town of culture status is already nurturing the creativity of local people.”

All the details of online culture in Bury are on our website at www.bury.gov.uk/digital-culture

• Join us tomorrow (Thursday 28 May) in the ‘Together In One Voice’ mass sing-a-long!

The community choir event is taking place as part of the Manchester International Festival and will see residents join their neighbours from their windows, doorsteps and streets (socially distanced of course!) as they sing along to a special soundtrack of songs.

Musical director Dan McDwyer is leading online rehearsals in preparation for the event, which will see video and music from across Greater Manchester shared into a film to be broadcast on 31 May.

ENDS

Press release issued: 27 May 2020.

About Bury Town of Culture:

1. Bury is the inaugural Greater Manchester Town of Culture.

2. We are celebrating the contribution of the arts, our communities and our heritage to our borough.

3. We are harnessing the power of our culture through events, exhibitions and participation - in cultural venues, in online platforms, in our streets and in our towns.

4. Activities during 2020 and 2021 will showcase the work of our famous daughters and sons, will share the distinctive identity of our communities and will inspire a new generation.

5. To find out more visit: https://www.bury.gov.uk/digital-culture