Winners of the GOLD Award in Rollout at the Sign & Wrap Awards
Completing the rebrand of 38 properties from Jury’s Inn hotels to Leonardo Hotels in a short timeframe showcased our capacity to manage complex manufacturing and logistics at scale.
The rebranding of an entire estate of properties with such varied architecture and located in busy town and city centres over a short space of time was a massive challenge, but one that our teams regularly prove highly capable of.
Consistency in application for a brand across an estate is key to ensuring that each hotel looks aligned with the next in terms of colour, signage asset type and function. The logistical planning to achieve this consistency was extensive.
There were other challenges including the necessity to prepare and submit planning approvals to local authorities and respond with amends where necessary whilst sticking to a rigid project programme. There was also the arranging of road closures and permits required for installation in highly pedestrianised areas and the collaboration with installation partners with specialist skill-sets such as abseiling to fix high-rise lettering.
This project truly demonstrates the sheer breadth of expertise that astley has within the team.
Superb abseiling crews at work installing new signage in the centre of Birmingham
After completing surveys at each location – documenting key characteristics such as current assets, dimensions, positioning, illumination, and fittings – our in-house design team developed concepts into a specification ‘concept development wall’, built at our Gateshead facility. This area demonstrated how each asset would look when applied to different surfaces and using different illuminations. Focusing on the attention to detail at this stage allowed the client ownership of the approval process and helped prevent any unexpected results on-site.
Once approved, our design team then created site-specific signage packs, using the overarching signage manual to specify each asset. These packs were used by our Projects team as part of the planning application process which we managed on behalf of the client.
Manufacture took part across both our production facilities and included BS EN 1090 certified fabrication for the architectural signage and totems.
Our teams also supported the client with the creation of an over-arching signage manual to be used by stakeholders to understand the ‘rules’ of brand application across multiple types of architecture and created site-specific signage packs that were used as part of the planning application process.
