UKAR ARena
Branding & Editorial Design
UKAR was created in October 2010 to manage the closed books of nationalised mortgage lenders, NRAM and Bradford & Bingley, in order to maximise value for taxpayers. As UKAR is managing £90 Billion of debt, they needed to quickly become the authority on the debt industry and so needed a product or service that would help support this.
I was tasked with developing firstly a Brand and Identity for a magazine and an appropriate format within UKAR’s budget. The piece had to feel digestible; small enough for the audience to carry while travelling, yet feel credible to support the values of the debt advice world.
Delivering understanding through editorial.
I created an identity for the publication guided by the concept of a Roman arena or coliseum.
The first issue used a dynamic shot of the City used as a frame to hero the new identity. The project was to rely on stock imagery, so I devised a red and blue grading with a half-tone effect that unified the imagery.
The ARena brand eventually found its way online, I defined the style for all online and screen applications.
Issue 10 Re-Design.
The quarterly magazine ran for two years in it's original form, I floated the idea of a re-design for it's 10th issue and updated the styling throughout. I changed the format to accommodate the increasing size of the articles that where quickly outgrowing the original square format, and made the whole more clean and contemporary.