Manchester City Council
Commonwealth Games visitor centre to help promote the region to a global audience
Created at
Creative Lynx
Deliverables
Exhibition design / Exhibition build
Project
Visitor Centre
Sector
Arts & Culture / Public Sector
Project information
Background
Manchester hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games, bringing 72 nations together for 281 events across 17 sports. More than a major sporting occasion, the Games became a defining moment in the city’s modern regeneration, showcasing Manchester’s ambition, invigorating its visitor economy and helping transform perceptions of the city and wider North West. It was a moment with an international audience, and the city needed to make the most of it.
The creative challenge
Manchester City Council secured a large, empty space on Portland Street to create a visitor centre for Games audiences. My brief was to design an engaging visitor experience that provided practical information about the Games, Manchester and the wider region. The challenge was to turn a vast blank interior into an appealing, intuitive environment that encouraged visitors to explore the places, people and attractions beyond the sporting schedule.
Creativity with character
The scale of the space was the central design challenge. I responded by creating a modular exhibition design system built around stacked one-metre cubes. These became large, three-dimensional canvases for maps, images, information and regional stories, arranged in varied configurations to create visual impact and a natural visitor journey. The bold identity, colourful styling and flexible graphic assets gave each region a distinct voice while keeping the whole experience cohesive. Opened by Sir Bobby Charlton, the centre welcomed more than 100,000 visitors in six months and won a Roses Design Award for Exhibition Design.