Highcross Leicester
Make yourself at home
Leicester is known for its thriving Indian community, but it’s home to Eastern Europeans, North and West Africans and Caribbeans too. It also happens to be one of the oldest cities in England. The result is a place teeming with heritage and stories and pride – with an eclectic food offering and passionate support of many sports teams. Highcross shopping centre can be found slap bang in the middle of this cultural melting pot, but as soon as you walked inside it didn’t feel like Leicester any more, and sales were suffering as a result. They tasked us to reenergise their brand, creating a platform that invited communities in and reflected the rich tapestry of proper Leicester, so that Highcross could regain its position as the no. 1 shopping destination in the city.
We wrote a brand model, built a bold, beautiful brand with a striking visual language that married textured, in-the-moment photography with unique, graphic illustration and developed a toolkit that they could live by. The new brand rolled out across social with a set of animated illustrations, and was plastered on vinyls and shop windows across the centre, as well as posters and DOOH. By creating something ownable and real, we pushed Highcross away from generic competitors and into a space where the people of Leicester could do self-care and go to the cinema and practice dopamine dressing, but, more importantly, where they could also hang out and stay as long as they liked – connecting with their community through sport, music, culture, food, drink and art.
“bandstand was appointed for our brand refresh project at Highcross in Leicester, and we were exceptionally pleased with the results. It was refreshing to work with an agency that did things differently and challenged us. The team was strategic, highly driven, and personable and they created an authentic brand that was visually interesting. A pleasure to work with and highly recommended if you want a fresh approach.”
Victoria Holloway
- Strategy
- Tone of voice
- Workshops
- Visual identity
- Social
- Guidelines