Manchester Central
Junction
Unearthing the heritage of a Manchester icon for a new food and drink concept
The site of Manchester Central has a unique provenance and legacy within the city: for over a century, it served as the city’s main railway station, and it now is home to one of the UK’s leading event spaces.
In a progressive step forward, Central set out to establish a new cafe, bar, restaurant and social workspace. With this, we were tasked with naming and branding this new concept.
We saw it as a missed opportunity not to draw on some of the building’s provenance and to carry this narrative forward – in its name, theme, or visual cues. This inspired a contemporary take on the rich rail history, defining a new chapter in the space's legacy without feeling overly themed or contrived.
Introducing Junction – a flexible space open all day, every day, for everyone.
The name and subsequent look and feel, all stemmed from the provenance of the location of the historic former railway station. Looking into the archive, we discovered that the Junction Canal previously ran through the site, coupled with the overarching theme of defining a flexible space where different paths cross and people connect.
Process
Concept
As a key component of the identity, we created a bespoke typeface that drew inspiration from rail tracks and their fluid interconnecting elements.
To add further flexibility in tone of application, multiple weights and variants were created – Regular, Inline, Track and Thin.
