Student designs new branding for Peel Park for 180th anniversary

BA Graphic Design student Fowziyah Adam, 22, undertook the project as part of a partnership between the University and Salford City Council. 

All 75 second-year students on the programme were tasked with a live brief to develop a new brand identity for the park, which is set to undergo a physical and digital facelift this year to celebrate its 180th birthday. 

Fowziyah’s suggested designs were handpicked by a panel made up of the council’s design team and a representative from Carbon Creative, the agency that developed the council’s branding for the city’s centenary celebrations.

Her finished work consists of distinctive new logos for the park itself and the 180th birthday celebrations, interactive wayfinding, digital animations and suggested social media graphics. She will now work with the council to implement them over the coming months.

Fowziyah said: “I feel so privileged that my time here at Salford coincided with this opportunity, with my work to now be on display in the park forever.

“I’ll be able to come back in ten years’ time and be able to show others what I did here as a student – that’s not something that most students get to achieve whilst studying here so I do feel very lucky.”

Fowziyah spent three weeks researching the park before starting her initial concept designs. She spoke to a range of park visitors and engaged with the nearby Salford Museum and Art Gallery to try and understand people’s thoughts on how a new brand could bring something new to the park.

She added: “I found out that a lot of visitors wanted to see a community feel in the new branding and I worked hard to make sure that this came through in the design.”

Before this project, BA Graphic Design students had to wait until their final year at Salford to get involved in external briefs, but Alan Oliver, the programme lead, decided to offer this brief to second year students to grant them more experience in working with external partners and build up their confidence ahead of their third year.

He said: “Fowziyah’s designs are just brilliant. She really touched every base that the panel was looking for in her submission.

“We believe that no other second year Graphic Design student in the country would have ever done a live brief like this before. To have her work permanently on show within a public park is some achievement. It will leave a legacy behind when she graduates.”

Peel Park was created in 1846 as the first public park in the UK funded entirely by the people of Salford and free for all to use. 

It is named after former Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, who made a huge impact on the people of Salford through his social and economic reforms, that included limited the hours that women and children could work in factories, the founding of the police force and repealing the Corn Laws.