“What’s it going to be then, eh?”
Telling the story of one of one of the great storytellers. Novelist, composer, journalist and all-round polymath, Anthony Burgess.
When first introducing the extensive works of the Manchester-born writer, the piece familiar to most is his novel A Clockwork Orange, immortalised in cinema by Stanley Kubrick.
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation — a library, archive, events venue and literary foundation established in his name exists to maintain the extensive Burgess archive, and generate public and scholarly interest in his works.
A Slice of Clockwork Orange.
Our Creative Director Simon Webbon was tasked with bringing new audiences into the Foundation’s venue; a stunning industrial space in one of Manchester’s trademark city centre mills.
We took a two-pronged approach; working closely with the local universities on collaborative academic projects, continuing to promote the Foundation among scholarly circles as one of the essential centres for literary study in Manchester, and utilising the Foundation’s landmark venue as a space for the general public to discover new music, writing and design.
We project managed and devised the communications strategy for the annual Observer / Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, held at the Observer and Guardian newspaper headquarters at King’s Place, London.
Literature and Design
Working with local design studio Instruct, we produced a rebrand for the Foundation, including a new website, print collateral to promote the Foundation’s events programme, and physical branding for the Foundation’s imposing city centre venue.
Taking inspiration from the architecture of the building and the iconic Penguin covers of Anthony Burgess’s novels, the new branding was bold, colourful and inviting, encouraging audiences to actively judge a book by its cover.