Project / To promote British Creativity, Innovation & Design
Task / Logos, Visual Identities, Exhibitions & Design Collaterals
Client / Department of Trade & Industry, UK (DTI) and British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur
Year / 1998—2004
In collaboration with Nikki Rowntree (PR Consultant), London
WHW Legacy Projects—1998+
BRITAIN IN MALAYSIA
Launched in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, Britain in Malaysia—Just Between Friends is a celebration of the long-standing and successful partnership between the two countries. The campaign includes the iconic uk.today@klcc exhibition, trade fairs, store promotions, a film festival, music and theatre performances, club nights, educational exchanges, and sporting events.
MALAYSIA
uk.today@klcc was the highlight of the Britain in Malaysia campaign—a major exhibition to celebrate Britain’s creativity, innovation, and design. The exhibition was officiated by HM Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to Malaysia, held in conjunction with the XVI Commonwealth Games in 1998.
Background: Remember ‘Cool Britannia’?
Cool Britannia was, in hindsight, a period of media and marketing hype aimed at promoting the UK to an international audience. The phrase was an expression for the cultural renaissance that happened during the heady, innocent early days of UK’s New Labour government.
It was a time “when a young prime minister with a dodgy haircut, elected by a landslide, rubbed shoulders and quaffed white wine with the cream of London luvviedom”, reports The Telegraph in an article dated 11 December 2017—20 years after Tony Blair’s garish Downing Street party which may have led to the innovative concept of a ‘creative industry’.
After overturning 18 years of fusty Conservative rule, the idealistic new PM was determined to show that he was doing things differently. London was finally swinging again, and self-consciously, ‘Brit Pop’ and ‘Brit Art’ became the ‘in’ thing. The new Government co-opted celebrity pop stars, actors, artists, and designers into the heart of the establishment; and then rebranded UK as a ‘cultural powerhouse’, spectacularly presented via the Millennium Dome and the aptly named powerhouse::uk exhibition.
The Foreign Office also assisted this effort by convening a special task force “to help give Britain a ‘cool’ image abroad”. It was how this infectious optimism and enthusiasm reached Kuala Lumpur, and consequently, how our design firm got involved.
How far away it all seems now.
Ultimately, Cool Britannia’s giddy cultural fantasia collapsed with the 2003 Iraq war, and the term itself is now used with caution.
Celebrating Britain’s Creativity, London 1998
The Millennium Dome
“I flew to London with my designer to discuss with Why Not Associates, the design firm behind the powerhouse::uk exhibition, and Department of Trade and Industry (dti) about bringing the exhibition to Malaysia.
A few months later, we were told it was too expensive and that the content had to reflect collaborations between Britain and Malaysia.
That gave us and the small team from London only four months to conceptualise, develop the content, curate, design and build the exhibition from scratch.”
The first obstacle presented itself very quickly: there were no available exhibition venues as all were fully booked for the Commonwealth Games. With the deadline fast approaching, a decision was made to build a sizeable translucent pyramid to house the exhibition on the open-air parking lot of the Petronas Twin Towers (KLCC).
“This imposing outdoor pyramid, which glowed luminous in the evening, drew hundreds of shoppers every day, thinking it was an extension of KLCC’s shopping mall.
uk.today@klcc had a record turnout crowd due to this unforeseen, but fortunate outcome.”
The logo was based on the pyramid structure and the circular forms of the exhibition layout.
uk.today@klcc was designed to interest a broad spectrum of visitors: casual walk-ins, families, tourists, business people, creatives, academics, and students. The 24-page education pack and worksheets distributed at the venue provide suggestions of activities, questions, and discussion topics based on a selection of displays from the exhibition. It was meant to help teachers encourage students to apply the information that they gained at the exhibition to a Malaysian context and to their own concerns about lifestyle, health, safety, design, and the future.
Visitor’s guidebook & directory of exhibitors
Education pack and worksheets
Exhibition leaflet
Stationery set
Entry pass. The perforated pyramid-shaped piece is punched out upon entry to record the number and category of visitors.
The PHILIPPINES
After uk.today@klcc, our designers created visual identities and collaterals for UK events across Southeast Asia. The theme and content of these promotions were country-specific, and thus did not share a collective visual identity.
The designEXCELLENCE exhibition in Manila brought together some of Britain’s most progressive companies—from electronics to environment, fashion to interiors—thereby shaping the exhibition into a sourcing centre for new ideas and innovations from qualityBRITAIN.
VIETNAM
The UK & Vietnam Creative Partnerships week was a showcase of design creativity and innovation linking Vietnamese and British designers in new partnerships.
The event included projects that focused on graphic, industrial, product, and fashion design; sharing ideas and inspirations for the future through a series of workshops, seminars, exhibitions, and fashion shows.
AUSTRALIA
Our work for Australia focused on collaterals promoting UK’s participation in the Mercedes Australia Fashion Week 2000.
During the Conservative rule of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain in the 80s, the use of patriotic symbols in art and culture—such as the Union Jack and the RAF roundel—typically carried a strong sentiment of irony and sometimes, derision. It was Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia, with its giddy and carefree optimism, that incited a change, bringing on a playfully patriotic British renaissance. As a result, Union Jacks began to appear on fashion catwalks as a fresh and fashionable symbol. Our designers, too, made frequent use of the Union Jack symbol as it was no longer a stigma in the UK culture.
Images of models from powerhouse::uk adapted for uk.today@klcc.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
In recognition of Dubai’s status as a leading retail centre, Xperience UK was a stunning showcase of creativity that included the glamour of fashion, the creativity of design innovation, and the dynamics of the world’s best retailers.
(Xperience UK logo was created in the UK. We adapted the visual identity for the collaterals.)
MANCHESTER IN MALAYSIA
NW–SE: Manchester in Malaysia was a week-long event that showcased a modern mix of music, fashion, and broadcast technologies.
Manchester is well-known for its sporting and musical talent. It also has a long history of business talent, pioneering developments in technology, transport, engineering, physics, computing, medical research, education and robotics. The city has the UK’s highest investment for research and development.
Our clients for this project were Marketing Manchester, MIDAS and the British High Commission Malaysia.
A t-shirt motif design competition was organised for full-time students studying in a design or art school in Malaysia and Britain. The winner from each country received an all-expenses-paid trip to the other country, with an opportunity for work placement and cultural exchange for a month.
Poster and entry form for students in Malaysia (‘music + fashion + a blank t-shirt’).
Poster and entry form for students in Britain (‘fancy hanging out in Malaysia?’).
Working with the British Council, Peter Barnes was busy throughout NW–SE: Manchester in Malaysia week, teaming up with schools in Kuala Lumpur to introduce Malaysia’s future football players to football coaching, Manchester-style.
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES TRADE MISSION
Arts in Business : Business in Arts UK was an initiative to enhance collaboration between the creative industries of both countries. 19 arts organisations and institutions, including Istana Budaya, the National Art Gallery, Galeri Petronas, Five Arts Centre, Dramalab, Multimedia Development Corporation, FINAS, and WHW & Associates participated in this mission to Manchester and Liverpool. Our designers created the collaterals.
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION, KUALA LUMPUR
From 1998 to 2002, we worked closely with Trade Partners UK and British High Commission to create many design collaterals to facilitate trade between Britain and Malaysia.
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