Dandy

As a Nottingham-based agency, I read with interest this week’s Design Week article highlighting the work of the talented London-based Belgian graphic designer Sara De Bondt. But I would be lying if I didn’t say I was more than a little disappointed when I spotted she had been commissioned to create the visual identity for the new Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham’s soon-to-open contemporary art space.

Clearly Sara has extensive experience in this area, but I find it a real shame that any one of a broad range of creative talent in and around Nottingham were not used to create the identity for the new venture. There is plenty of excellent creativity around the city that could, and would, have thrived on creating a suitably contemporary and imaginative identity.

It’s doubly disappointing as Nottingham as a city is currently very proudly nailing its colours to the mast in relation to creativity, by bidding to be ‘World Design Capital’ in 2012 - highly commendable, and something I wholeheartedly condone. But if we’re that good, how come we can’t use our own designers when it comes to major design project within the city?

If we don’t, or won’t, invest in the talent on our doorstep, how can we expect to be taken seriously when we promote ourselves as a creative city?

I’m not sure whose decision it was, or how it was made - but I suspect we can be sure that if Leeds, Manchester or Liverpool were to need something similar, one suspects they would look locally. Something to keep in mind if as a city we are to aspire to compete with other major cities in the UK.