Branding TE MANAWA as the Heart of the Manawatu Region

Naming

With a name ten words long, ‘The Science Centre Manawatu Museum and Manawatu Art Gallery Trust’ were in desperate need of a new name and brand. “That mouthful is our proper name, nobody ever gets it right and who wants a name like that,” says Julie Catchpole, director of the museum, science centre and art gallery.

The only regional museum complex in New Zealand to combine art, science and heritage, the Trust was established three years ago by the Palmerston North City Council, bringing the three organisations together to be managed as one.

“We knew we needed a new name but we were stuck so we asked four different companies to pitch for the task of finding us a name and creating our new identity,” says Ms Catchpole.

Getting straight to the heart of the matter, Cluster Creative won the contract with the name Te Manawa and the catchphrase ‘Life, Art, Mind’. Not only is Manawa the Maori word for heart but Manawa-tu, the region’s name, literally means ‘heart stood still’ and describes the heart stopping experience of a Maori ancestor who first saw the mighty Manawatu River.

Visual Identity

Identifying a trinity with the museum, art gallery, and science centre (Life, Art, Mind), Cluster Creative developed a logo, which weaves the three identities together forming a heart at its centre.

“The notion of heart was perfect for us as a regional museum which should, in its role, capture the heart of the region,” says Ms Catchpole. Cluster’s brief was to create a new name and identity that was short, memorable, and reflected the view of the organisation.

“We wanted a brand that would unite us and put that message out and Te Manawa met all of the criteria,” says Ms Catchpole.

Graphic Edge

Hired also for their clean design approach with a hard contemporary edge, Cluster was also favoured by the Trust for its formal disciplined approach to brand development which helped in the decision making process.

Building a framework to work from, Cluster audited the published materials, conducted workshops, and met with staff, management, Trust members and Friends organisations, before going about developing the brand.

“Cluster brought a rationalised and methodological process to that which made it easy,” says Ms Catchpole. “They really understood where we wanted to be and have been really clever in providing us with tools that we can use to develop our brand for a long time going forwards.”