Culture House

• Brand Strategy and Positioning
• Visual Identity Systems
• Logo and Monogram Design
• Motion Principles and Graphic Animation
• Environmental Design
• Digital and Print Art Direction

BRIEF
As part of the Riverside Sunderland regeneration project, Sunderland City Council tasked Studio Blackburn with creating a flexible brand identity for Culture House Sunderland, a major new multi-purpose public building in Sunderland. Housing art, technology, and the National Centre for Creative Smart Cities, the space was designed as a shared “living room” for the city. The identity needed to instil civic pride, feel completely native to the physical architecture, and flex seamlessly across both environmental and digital touchpoints.

WORK
Building on a creative partnership spanning more than a decade with Sunderland City Council, we developed a visual identity rooted in community and structural logic. The central logo system revolves around a bold C&H monogram that rotates and clicks into the silhouette of a house. Because the building’s physical spaces and interiors were already defined, we extracted the muted colours selected for each floor’s finishes and ramped up their intensity, creating a palette that feels native to the physical venue while delivering maximum impact for the digital age.

PLAY
The identity turns the architectural house symbol into an energetic graphic tool. The graphic house serves as a modular frame for community photography, structures environmental wayfinding, and guides animated typography across digital screens and social channels. Paired with an insightful, accessible tone of voice, the system shifts effortlessly between welcoming wayfinding and expressive digital storytelling, ensuring Culture House feels like an inspiring home from home for every visitor.