THIS may be the first look at how an ambitious project to transform Worcester's railway arches may be branded.

Students from the University of Worcester have put forward their ideas for a brand identity for Worcester's Arches and organisers of the project say they plan to use some elements in the final design.

Through the Arches project, eight of the Victorian arches, between Foregate Street railway station and The Hive and the River Severn, will be refurbished to become a modern workplace for the creative industries and a cultural destination for tourists and local communities.

The transformation will provide a hub for business and creative skills development in the £4.5m project, with £3m funding from Government.

The Arches project team tasked Graphic Design students who have been taking the ‘24hr Pressure Projects’ module to develop a set of artwork concepts to help them come up with an identity for the project, including logos and sub logos, colour schemes and fonts. 

These ideas were applied to example marketing concepts and scenarios to show how they might work in reality if taken on. 

Elaine Knight, Arts Director for Severn Arts, one of the partners in the project, said: “This has been a really good opportunity to make us think about what sort of image we want to communicate through our branding. 

“As a totally new project which is at the early stages of development, but also a project that needs to build on what’s already here in Worcester, the students gave us plenty of creative ideas to go away with.”

Max Mann, a third year student on the University of Worcester’s Graphic Design course, added: “The idea of having a real-life client come in and set a brief that we were able to work on as a team was a great experience.

“In our team we all had different styles and methods of working. 

“Bringing these different skills together to create a response to the brief gave an insight into working in a design agency.”

Students worked on the project over a tight two day schedule, aimed at simulating the occasional quick project turnarounds in the design and media industry.