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Watford BID Banners

Watford Bid Banners

A colourful High Street collaboration

When Acuity was commissioned to create a series of place banners to keep Watford High Street looking vibrant and warm in the winter months, it was an opportunity to explore a creative collaboration with a colourful local artist.

Listen instead?

“The banners are a stunning example of bringing together two creative talents, who would normally work in very different mediums, and letting them address our brief”.

Maria Manion

Chief Executive of Watford BID

Challenge

The centre of Watford is a hive of fantastic shopping, places to eat, experiences and spaces to simply hang out. Our challenge was to capture this verve on banners that would not only match the town’s energy, but would celebrate it during the dull winter months.

Watford BID Banners 1

Insight

Our banners needed to go beyond just a visual representation of the town. We realised that a town is as much about its people as its places, so decided that as well as venues, activities and locations, we’d also feature famous local people who’ve helped to define Watford’s character.


To bring this vision to life, we’d need a look as individual as the town, and who better to help us than a colourful local sculptor?

Watford BID Banners 2

 

 

Watford BID Banners 3

Solution

We teamed up with local sculptor Marco Caruso and set about working together to create snapshots of local life. Marco’s process involves sketching his vision before moving onto the physical sculpt itself. This meant our designer could take the original sketches and work directly over them digitally on an iPad. To mimic the physicality of the future sculpt, each sketch was reimagined with a punchy, polygonal style which echoed the shaping techniques of the real sculptures.

The resulting style meant that each banner was itself a colourful character, warming up any grey winter day on the High Street. Across 60 banners including places like the Palace Theatre, Vicarage Road and Watford Junction station and personalities such as Graham Taylor and Anthony Joshua, our creative used colour, energy and warmth to connect not just with Watford regulars, but with visitors to the town too.

Watford BID Banners 4

Results

The banners were featured on both the Watford Observer and on BBC Three Counties Radio and were even mentioned by the Mayor of Watford.

 

“The banners are a stunning example of bringing together two creative talents, who would normally work in very different mediums, and letting them address our brief. We are really excited and thrilled at the outcome, particularly as they had a very tight deadline to work to.”

Maria Manion, Chief Executive of Watford BID