Plain sailing for designers StudioLR as Mary Rose museum logo unveiled

Published on Wednesday 2 March 2011 16:04

A SCOTTISH design firm has helped create the branding for a new visitor attraction that will showcase the Mary Rose - almost 30 years after the Tudor vessel was raised from the sea bed.

Edinburgh-based StudioLR worked with strategic consultancy The Cambridge Centre to design a logo for the 35 million museum in Portsmouth, which will be the ship's permanent home when it opens next year.

StudioLR's team has spent a year on the project, which is ongoing, working with artefacts lent to them by the Mary Rose Trust to get a feel for life aboard King Henry VIII's favourite warship.

Their mission was to create a branding that was evocative of Tudor times, but the trust was also keen that the new marque did not imply that visitors would see a whole ship in the museum - only half of the Mary Rose's hull was saved for display, and the attraction will use thousands of artefacts found around the wreck to illustrate what life on board was like.

Mark Wheeler, design director of StudioLR, said samples of Tudor calligraphy from among the objects lent to the design team provided the inspiration for a name badge that also looks like a sinking ship. The font will also be used in materials such as leaflets.

He said: "The brand identity was designed to be elegant yet hard working. It is a simple name-based marque that evokes the ship, its sinking, its resting place, its raising, ongoing restoration and it reveals the ship's Tudor history. We're delighted with the final marque and believe it communicates the dynamic and complex tale of the Mary Rose - it will spark interest in following its intriguing story when the museum opens in 2012."

The logo will feature on marketing, promotional and merchandising material for the new centre, which is expected to attract global interest.

Lucy Richards, founder of StudioLR, said: "This has been a fascinating and challenging commission. The brand identity needs to bring the museum project and the story of this famous vessel to life - it will be seen by people across the world as the key image for the Mary Rose. One of our aims was to challenge preconceptions that this is just a historical ship - to broaden interest in the iconic story of the Mary Rose to include families and children."

StudioLR has worked with The Cambridge Centre before, and their joint portfolio of heritage and destination branding projects includes Blarney Castle in Ireland and Inveraray Castle in Scotland. They also created branding material for Welbeck Estates, a 15,000 acre sustainable estate in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Set up in 2004, StudioLR has a team of eight people and specialises in branding through graphic design.

The firm recently created a new website for Portavadie Marina in Argyll giving the destination an image makeover. It has also created branding and signage for NHS trusts, local authorities and bodies such as Historic scotland and the National Trust.