Mr B & Friends, the Bristol-based branding and marketing agency, has launched a new identity for the city’s historic St George’s music and spoken word venue.
The rebrand is being rolled out as St George’s new season gets under way and ahead of its relaunch in April as a creative space for music and ideas. 
The concert hall is laying the foundations for an ambitious future with a £6.3m re-development nearing completion. It will bring a bold pavilion-style extension, new café bar, multipurpose spaces and exhibitions to the former Georgian church.
Mr B & Friends, which works with blue-chip clients such as Intercontinental Hotel Group, Principality Building Society, Unite Students and SSE, was asked to create a brand for St George’s that would match its new vision and be flexible enough to cover its performances, education and fundraising work, as well as venue hire.
The rebrand had to suit its loyal customer base while being suitably contemporary to attract new and more diverse audiences. Formed around the response of ‘feel moved’, the new brand captures the vibrancy, the intimacy and the sheer quality of the events and activities that take place at St George’s.
The agency, which relocated to Bristol from Bath last summer, describes it as “a fluid marque that has a suggestion of a music note combined with imagery of real artists absorbed in their performances is central to the visual identity”.
Examples already on view include the dramatic banners that hang from the front of Georgian building and feature internationally respected artists including classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic and Bristol-based star of Americana Yola Carter. The agency also created examples of the brand in action across marketing and event collateral.
Mr B & Friends creative director Kate Gorringe said: “This project was a fantastic introduction to Bristol for us. We visited St George’s Bristol for a concert and we were all totally enthralled. The size of the venue combined with the wonderful acoustics make the performances feel very personal. The brand that we’ve created harnesses that feeling, keeping the performance central to the identity.”
St George’s head of marketing Dagmar Smeed added: “Mr B & Friends has captured the essence of what was required for St George’s as we reopen with a new season of exceptional artists, and reach the final stages of our ambitious build project.
“The response has already been highly positive and we are confident it will help attract new audiences to St George’s, to enjoy our music and events, as well as exploring the new exhibitions and spending time in our café bar and gardens.”
St George’s is world-renowned for its exceptional acoustics and has been attracting classical, jazz, folk and world artists for just over 40 years.
Mr B & Friends last week launched a joint venture with US firm Noble Studios to bring together the best of British creativity with American technological expertise.
The creation of Noble Digital Marketing followed a nine-month strategic collaboration during which Noble, which set up a Bristol office last year, worked with the Mr B & Friends team on a number of their client projects.
