Dun Works, Sheffield: how can one person's enthusiasms generate a brand that speaks to a whole neighbourhood?
Celebrating the completion of the final phase - All Dun!
Project date: 2016-2021
Team:
Cheyne Capital Management, developer - Owain Thomas, Jack Greenhalf
South Yorkshire Housing Association, landlord - Dee Hiley, Kelly Parks, Kemba Mitchell & Simon Young
Crucible Homes, managing agent - Joel Phillips, Chantelle Hardie
Justine Gaubert and Jonny Wilkinson, brand
South Yorkshire Housing Association has ventured into a new type of housing: 225 flats for market rent at Dun Works in Kelham Island, Sheffield's most up and coming urban neighbourhood, recently voted one of the top 10 places to live in the UK.
These new homes are aimed at a new audience for us and needed a new approach to branding. But how to create a brand that is authentic, celebrates the neighbourhood and communicates our social values?
The homes have been funded and developed by Cheyne Capital Management, social investors in affordable housing (35% of the flats are let at lower rents). They are great places to live, in a great neighbourhood.
Justine Gaubert, our creative consultant, worked with our in-house graphic designer and artist Jonny Wilkinson to develop a brand that communicated what was special about these homes and their location.
The brand reflects South Yorkshire Housing Association's values and what we aim to achieve through this development:
#Well-built and well-appointed homes at an affordable price so that the people who first colonised Kelham Island can still afford to live here.
#A no-nonsense approach to housing that focuses on what's important to tenants: a responsive agent, an onsite caretaker, a responsible landlord.
The brand has five elements:
#1 Concept - based on Justine’s personal enthusiasms
#2 Name - a celebration of the River Don
#3 Messaging - a tribute to John Donne
#4 Neighbourhood - a love letter to Kelham Island
#5 Clarity - of language, design & service
The result is a brand in which the personal connects to bigger ideas about home, place and the relationship between landlord and tenant.
#1 The brand concept
Although Justine had worked with us on the target audience, the starting point for the brand itself was her personal enthusiasms and love for the area.
In this TEDx talk, Justine explains how she developed the brand concept within the space of a tram ride from Kelham Island to near her home in Loxley. (The Dun Works example starts from 7 mins into the video, but it’s well worth watching from the start!)
Justine developed the brand concept in the space of a tram ride
The River Don flood line on the front elevation of the Fat Cat
The brand sprang from what she describes as her ‘restricted and repetitive interests’: the musician Richard Hawley and their shared love of the rivers of Sheffield (especially the river Don), a love of the work of John Donne, and a fondness for real ale - in particular, hours spent in the ‘Fat Cat’, a Kelham Island pub and local institution, which has a marker of the river's flood line on its front elevation.
#2 The brand name - a celebration of Sheffield's River Don
Justine wanted the brand name to celebrate the area and firmly root it in the geography and history of the region.
The new development is close to the River Don, and the street that runs alongside it is called ‘Dun Fields’, a wonderfully evocative name that speaks of the meadows alongside the River Don before the land was developed for steel and cutlery works.
Justine’s love of musician Richard Hawley and their shared passion for The River Don, led her to wonder about the connection between ‘the Don’ and the name of the road ‘Dun’. She discovered in a book by the local historian David Hey - ‘A History of Sheffield’ - that:
“The names of Britain’s major rivers are amongst the oldest words in our language. The Don (or The Dun as it was pronounced and spelt well into the eighteenth century) is one of the river names that is pre-Celtic in origin, going back far into the pre-history period.”
Dun Works
And so we settled on the brand name ‘Dun Works’.
The name ‘Dun Works’ reminds us of the natural power of the river and its role in the steel industry.
In homage to the site’s manufacturing history (the site is built on a former works), we also managed to retain one part of the façade, complete with its signage.
Brick buildings and black steel cladding on the new development reflect this history. And we have retained a Grade II listed crucible on site with a special significance: it is one of only 18 remaining examples of a furnace used for brass casting, now repurposed as the world’s most unusual bin store, complete with the original stack, smelting holes, cellar, steel-plated roof and metal supports. It will be open to the public twice a year, so come and visit.
Continuing our nod to the River Don/Dun, each of the eight blocks in the development is named after one of the weirs on the Sheffield part of the Don, names that conjure some of the great names in Sheffield's steel history: Walk Mill, Burton, Sandersons, Brightside, Hadfields, Steelbank, Niagara, Beeley (the same names that I grew to love when working in the Lower Don Valley.)
And the public art commission by Owen Waterhouse, local Sheffield artist, has used stainless steel spheres on the front elevation to illustrate the true path of the River Don.
#3 The brand messaging - a tribute to John Donne
The name ‘Dun’ reminded Justine of the work and her lifetime love of the metaphysical poet, John Donne. In particular, she was reminded of Donne’s famous epigram, which marks the struggles with his father-in-law following his elopement with his wife Anne:
“John Donne-Anne Donne- Undone.”
The name Dun provided us with plenty of opportunities for playful messaging that suits the area and its inhabitants: ‘Not Dun’ on hoardings at the start of the construction work; ‘Nearly Dun’ when the homes are close to completion; ‘All Dun’ when they are built and let. ‘Dun n Dusted’ for the waste and recycling bins.
Justine continued the theme through marketing items, such as welcome mugs for new tenants.
#4 Marketing the Kelham love
Justine had spent many years working in Kelham Island as part of the creative community that kickstarted the regeneration of the area.
As well as being proud of the development and the area, Justine saw the brand as an opportunity to be neighbourly, to acknowledge all the people and businesses who have been here for years quietly transforming the place.
The resulting hyperlocal messaging celebrates local landmarks, the real ale trail, places where people go to eat and drink, places that make Kelham Island a great place to live.
We had to reassure Shamez Alibhai from Cheyne Capital Management that the Fat Cat was not a reference to our investor partners!
The campaign supports local landmarks like the Ship Inn and the Fat Cat
#5 A commitment to clarity
Justine also talks in the TEDx talk about how her autism drives her to value clarity, plain English and transparency in communication. If you look at the “watch the toast” story at the start of her talk you’ll see what I mean.
Jonny Wilkinson's graphic style is the perfect partner to Justine's messaging: the Dun Works brand is "honest", direct, no frills and yet warm. As such, it exemplifies the relationship we want to have with the people who live in these homes.
Want to live in Dun Works?
If you’re interested in renting one of the apartments at Dun Works, head over to Crucible Homes (where you can admire their lovely new brand, also created by Jonny Wilkinson).
Crucible Homes is wholly owned by South Yorkshire Housing Association and is the managing agent for Dun Works, complete with on site caretaker.