Branding & Report Microsite

Creative Producers International

The team at Watershed are working with a group of fifteen Creative Producers from all over the world leading a new global talent development programme.

Creative Producers International is addressing our ever-growing cities and looks to encourage a new kind of conversation with creative communities, citizens and city authorities; helping them to become change makers in their cities. The city of the future needs to have creative producers at its core so that our urban spaces reflect people and culture instead of policy and technology.

So, whilst the global CPI team re-imagine the future, we’ve been working on their look with a fresh brand identity, website and report. The initial brief was for a printed report but due to the impacts of COVID-19 the focus became about creating a online report which could be easily distributed and accessed online.

The role of the Creative Producer often involves connecting people, creating networks and organising projects. We’ve reflected this idea of ‘pulling the strings’ in the development of a new brand identity by placing the work at the centre of the designs with the producers off stage pulling the strings that connect everything together and creating a dynamic environment for positive change.

The design relies on illustrations that envision the creative networks built by each creative producer; using a line, thread, or string to connect the hands of change together. We wanted to highlight the significance of these networks and so we have focused on the idea of collaboration visualized through collaged elements. The importance of collaboration within the programme is evident throughout the report and the illustrations with each individual element reflecting the duality of interdependency and the sharing of skills, ideas and work.

These ‘hands of change’ throughout the branding are the real hands of the creative producers around the world and there are four different dynamic strings representing the multifaceted roles of the job. Bespoke illustrations have been created for each project profile tying together the Creative Producers and their connection to their surroundings. The collages were created digitally; mixing the simple lines and colours of the strings with bold cut-out photography creating a portrait for each producer and their projects.

From this brand identity, we created a website that brought together all of the resources needed to join the initiative in a simple and easy to navigate microsite including a downloadable PDF report.

Working with Andy and Dan at Greenhat was a brilliant experience for us. We wanted to create a digital report for an international project that had participants and stakeholders based around the globe. Greenhat really listened to our needs and engaged with what the report was about, and they were really friendly, flexible and responsive to work with. Andy and Dan delivered a beautiful microsite that reflected the project in terms of its design, as well as being clear and accessible. We have had loads of positive feedback on it. Big thanks to the Greenhat team!

Alice Quigley, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)

Have a look at the website and explore the projects for yourself: www.watershed.co.uk/cpi/