Glenbrook
Brand creation and naming for a high-end office development in Stockport
Created at
Future
Deliverables
Naming / Brand identity / Site hoardings / Website / Brochure design / Social media content / Art direction
Project
STOK
Sector
Property
Project information
Background
The UK high street is changing. Shifting consumer habits, online retail and rising costs have left many town centres needing a new reason to visit, work and invest. When Glenbrook acquired the former Marks & Spencer building at Merseyway, Stockport, it saw an opportunity to turn redundant retail space into a high-quality, contemporary commercial destination, helping to support the town centre’s wider regeneration.
The creative challenge
The task was to create the name, brand identity and full marketing toolkit for a major office development in Stockport town centre. The brand needed to position the scheme as a credible city-centre-standard workspace: aspirational enough to attract ambitious occupiers but rooted in its location. It also needed to give the development a distinctive voice in a competitive commercial property market, helping agents communicate the quality, flexibility and connectivity of the space.
Creativity with character
Walking through the former M&S, with its abandoned mannequins, escalators and sale posters made the opportunity clear. This could not feel like a retail conversion. The identity needed to create a decisive break with the building’s past and present it as a confident, architect-led office development for a new generation of businesses.
I led a thorough naming process and developed STOK, a concise, ownable shorthand for Stockport. It felt direct, modern and local without being parochial, exactly the balance the development needed. More importantly, it gave the brand a flexible verbal device that could work hard across office development marketing.
That flexibility shaped the campaign language. STOK room helped communicate the scale and choice of workspace; STOK car, STOK plane, STOK train brought the development’s exceptional connectivity to life; and Lock, STOK & Barrel provided a memorable way to showcase the all-inclusive workplace amenities. The name became more than a logo, it became a practical, characterful sales tool.
The visual identity took its cue from the development’s biophilic interior design and contemporary architecture. I created a natural, refined colour palette and an assured editorial style, balancing minimalism with enough personality to stand apart in the commercial property sector. Combined with the positioning, “A game changer for the Stockport office market,” it gave the scheme a clear, confident presence across the website, brochures, signage, sales materials and digital assets.