Graphic design students from Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale have created the branding for Rochdale Stronger Together – a co-op-backed community initiative to develop the local economy.
Rochdale Stronger Together was launched in 2016 by the Rochdale Borough Social Enterprise & Co-operative Forum – a network of local co-ops and social enterprises that promotes the wellbeing of the community. The initiative was created to draw on the borough’s co-op heritage and create a shared vision of a good local economy.
A formal leadership group was created last November with representation from organisations including Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) – the UK’s first tenant and employee co-owned mutual housing society. It also includes Hopwood Hall; Rochdale Sixth Form College; Link4Life; STAR Procurement; Heywood Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group; Northern Care Alliance and Rochdale Borough Council.
To make the initiative a household name in the Greater Manchester town, the leadership group asked Hopwood Hall’s graphic design students to create a brand for the initiative. The brief was to design branding that stands out from the crowd and means something to local people.
The leadership group selected their top three designs from the 26 submitted from first and second year students, and have awarded the finalists for their work. Group members Cllr Liam O’Rourke, Deborah Lyon and Michael Taylor presented the top three student designers with certificates and awards.
Anna Russell created the winning design with Jack Lythgoe-Hodgson and Alycia Gunn coming second and third. Anna’s design can now be seen on all Rochdale Stronger Together social media accounts, official documents and presentations.
Deborah Lyon, Rochdale Stronger Together leadership group member, said: “I was impressed by the quality of the work all the students submitted. It was a credit to themselves, the college and the borough. It was important to us to have the Rochdale Stronger Together logo designed by our very own young people.”
