For 150 years, Bristol’s biggest music venue aspired to be at the heart of the city – yet carried the name of a slave trader.

As the building began its biggest ever redevelopment, the name was the first thing to go. But to truly bring the city together, the brand that replaced it had to be built together.

Working with young creatives from the city’s Rising Arts Agency, we turned Colston Hall into Bristol Beacon. And with that, a traditional civic-hall became a community-focused music charity – making space for music in everybody’s lives.

Ticket sales rose by 25%, bringing 380,000 people through the doors in the year that followed.

This new brand had to be made in Bristol. And ideally by the people the new organisation most wanted to reach, or it would never take off. We connected with a radical artist’s collective called Rising Arts Agency (some of whom had helped Mr Colston when he went for his little swim in the harbour). Three of their young designers worked on the project, with our London studio giving background support.

The new look is all about passion and vitality. It’s a look that you feel, more than see. Like the audience, it doesn’t accept the old classifications and boundaries. Music is music. The Beacon makes space for all kinds.

Rosa ter Kuile, the young creative from Rising Arts Agency who became the lead designer on the rebrand, knew exactly what it had to be: “Expressive. Inclusive. Unfiltered. A little bit wonky. Like all of us.”