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About

These guidelines have been created by the Barbican Studio, which is the in-house design team at the Barbican Centre, London. The Studio creates most of the visual material for the Centre. It is based in the Marketing Department and consists of four permanent designers.

The current structure of the design team was created in 2011 and coincides with a major rebranding project undertaken by North. The philosophy of the team is based on the visual guidelines North created at the time. These set out a flexible system influenced by the Centre’s vision of ‘arts without boundaries’ and includes strong visual elements that allow freedom and diversity.

For further information contact design@barbican.org.uk

Browse

Chapter
0.0 Our Voice 1.0 Invite 2.0 Show 3.0 Passion 4.0 Examples 5.0 Recap 6.0 Accessibility
Page
0.0.1 Intro 0.0.2 Values 0.0.3 Principles
1.0.1 Intro 1.0.2 Everyday 1.0.3 Personal 1.0.4 Shorten 1.0.5 Artspeak 1.0.6 Test
2.0.1 Imagine 2.0.2 Attention 2.0.3 Start 2.0.4 Concise 2.0.5 Qualifiers
3.0.1 Intro 3.0.2 Tell 3.0.3 Ask 3.0.4 Rhythm 3.0.5 Variety
4.0.1 Intro 4.0.2 Homepage 4.0.3 Season 4.0.4 Advert 4.0.5 Notice 4.0.6 Invite 4.0.7 Poster 4.0.8 Hire 4.0.9 Response 4.1.0 Report 4.1.1 Exhibition
5.0.1 Audiences 5.0.2 Cheatsheet
6.0.1 Language 6.0.2 Jargon 6.0.3 Headings 6.0.4 Links 6.0.5 Opinions 6.0.6 Images
Report

Before

International programme

The Barbican has an ambitious cross-arts programme and we are incredibly grateful to those partners helping the Barbican expand its reach and impact around the world. The Barbican continues to work with an expanding network of embassies and cultural institutes, who last year provided vital support for productions and performances from artist companies in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Japan, among others.

After

Going global

We’re excited to bring our cross-arts programme to people around the world.

To make it happen, we rely on the help of our growing network of embassies and cultural institutes. Last year, they helped us put on productions in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, and Japan.

What’s not working?

  • Using the third person — ‘the Barbican’ — makes us sound cold and distant
  • Slightly corporate, formal language: ‘expand its reach and impact’
  • Long-winded, hard-to-read sentences: ‘…who last year provided vital support…’

What’s changed?

  • Replacing a formal headline — ‘International programme’ — into one that sounds more everyday
  • Replacing the third-person with ‘we’: The Barbican has => we’re excited
  • Shorter, sharper sentences: last year, they helped us…

Source: Annual report excerpt

Examples
4.1.0