Author: Cyril Richert
An interim Visioning report has been released before the Strategic planning Committee on September 16th.
The final stage of the work is intended to be completed within the next two months and will include:
- Finalisation of, and agreement on, the vision statement, Unique Selling Propositions (USPs), competitive positioning strategy;
- completion of the final project report, which will include detailed recommendations and a comprehensive implementation strategy for each town centre, as well as detail on overarching recommendations across the Borough;
- Development of unique brand identities for each town centre, including brand guidelines.
With a government grant of £100,000 in hands, Wandsworth Council decided to commissioned a study on the five town centres of the borough. The Mosaic Partnership was asked to “identify a positioning strategy for each of the borough’s five town centres“.
Online surveys were held in each of the town centres. In total, nearly 1,500 individual survey responses have been recorded, with 253 responses for Clapham Junction town centre. We have been discussing the interim result of the questionnaires in our previous article.
In order to propose the final brand for Clapham Junction, the team presented the various options to an online survey so that stakeholders could virtually vote.
Here is a link to the online voting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GQ69B7H
Their interim report on the Visionning project for Clapham Junction is below.
In any case the director of finance commented:
There is currently no identified budget provision to fund the implementation of any future recommendations in relation to the issues highlighted in paragraph 13, and so will have to be framed within the reality of the current financial situation or identify possible alternative sources of funding.
Clapham Junction Town Centre Consultancy Update
Clapham Junction Town Centre is centred around the bustling Clapham Junction train station – one of the busiest stations in Europe. At busy commuter times, evenings and weekends, the centre is a buzz of activity and people, though the daytime economy is notably slower. Nodes of the centre have become after-work drink and meeting locations and the area has continued to have a strong night-time economy. The area is linear over 4 different streets, and lacks the layout of a more traditional centre. Those individual streets have independent brands and awareness, and the name Clapham Junction itself has historically provided branding challenges.
| Key Issues/Opportunities | Key Challenges/Threats |
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Vision
The PWG (Project Working Group) desires a vision that is built around the opportunity the station provides, including:
- Captures the energy and movement that the train station brings to the centre
- Creates a clean, safe and welcoming place to linger and discover all of the centre’s various areas and offerings
- Diversifies and nurtures distinctive daytime, night-time and weekend economies
- Pays homage to the history, heritage and architecture of the place
USPs/Competitive Position
The PWG has identified the following key USPs for Clapham Junction Town Centre:
- The train station as transport hub – the place where people to connect and the first step into London from the Southeast
- Architecture, history, heritage
- Vibrant nighttime (and weekend?) economy
Supporting USPs include the access and proximity to London, and the diversity of offers you can get all in one stop.
Brand
There is still uncertainty over the brand name that will be utilized for the area between utilizing Clapham Junction or simply The Junction. We will be moving forward to brand design with both and exploring the different uses and impacts of each. For the tone of the brand, Clapham Junction will move forward with the concept of the town centre being a place where you make “connections” and that it’s the starting point to several different destinations once you arrive.
The full interim report is available on the website: http://wandsworthtowncentres.co.uk/
UPDATE 23/10/2013: The Mosaic Partnership said:
“The recent vote on the brand came back with somewhat unclear results. My sense from looking at the votes together with the comments is that you all were/are drawn to the original version of the logo we selected last week, but there are concerns that it doesn’t reflect the “train track” aspect enough, looks too much like a snowflake, etc. Several who voted for options other than the original did so only because they thought it better conveyed how “real train tracks look.”
At this point, we are worried that we are all getting caught up in details of what a train crossing should look like. Brands don’t have to be literal… in fact the best brands usually aren’t, but rather convey an idea or an iconic image that people recognize and associate with a place.”
Therefore they suggest to paint one of the track red on their “snow-flake” type crossing.
In our view, adding a colour to the design is inappropriate because:
– this single small red spot is odd in the image;
– adds unnecessary complexity to the image;
– makes the usage of the brand more complex (just think of the cost involve in using a colour rather than black and white for some ad posters).
If you indeed wanted to remove the snow-flake feeling and keep the design simple with a similar image, you could just extend one of the track, as per the image below:
Filed under: Clapham Junction 
